Skip to main content

Full text of "The Oxford Museum"

See other formats


LO 


BfiflBR 


I 


Presented  to  the 

LIBRARY  of  the 

UNIVERSITY  OF  TORONTO 

by 
PROFESSOR  PETER  HEYWORTH 


THE 

OXFORD    MUSEUM 


THE 

OXFORD  MUSEUM 


BY 


HENRY  W.  ACLAND,   M.D. 


AND 


JOHN    RUSKIN,  M.A. 

HONORARY  STUDENTS  OF  CHRIST  CHURCH 


From  original  Edition,  1859.     With  Additions  in  1893 


GEORGE    ALLEN 

LONDON     AND     ORPINGTON 
1893 


HORACE    HART,    PRINTER   TO   THE   UNIVERSITY 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

PREFACE  TO  NEW  EDITION          .        .        .        .        .      vii 

PREFACE  TO  SECOND  EDITION xxvii 

PREFACE  TO  FIRST  EDITION xxix 

REMARKS  ADDRESSED  TO  A  MEETING   OF  ARCHITEC- 
TURAL SOCIETIES  AT  OXFORD.    BY  DR.  ACL  AND, 

1858 1 

LETTER  FROM  MR.  RFSKIN,  No.  1  .        .        .43 

„  „  No.  2       ....       60 

LETTER  FROM  PROFESSOR  PHILLIPS    ....      91 

NOTES 

I.  ON  STATUES  IN  THE  MUSEUM     ....  102 

II.  ON  THE  IRISH  WORKMEN 104 

III.  ON  CONTRIBUTORS  TO  THE  SCULPTURE        .        .  110 

IV.  MR.  WOODWARD in 

ILLUSTRATIONS 

FERN  CAPITAL  IN  CENTRAL  AREA      .        .       Frontispiece 
PROFESSOR   RUSKIN  AND   SIR   HENRY   ACLAND, 

BABT tofacexxv 

SKETCH  OF  IRON  SPANDREL         .        .        .        .        .89 
PLAN  OF  GROUND  FLOOR  OF  THE  MUSEUM,  1893      at  end 


PREFACE  TO  REPRINT  OF 
THE  OXFORD  MUSEUM,  i893 


rpHIRTY-FOUR   years    have   elapsed   since 
the  few  pages  which  follow  have  been  out 
of  print  in  their  present  form. 

A  third  edition  of  the  little  volume  was 
published  in  1861  by  an  editor,  at  a  time  when 
I  was  deeply  engaged  and  unable  to  attend  to 
any  unnecessary  work.  After  it  had  been 
printed  I  was  much  concerned  to  find  that 
Mr.  Ruskin's  Letters  had  been  omitted,  being 
informed  that  they  were  to  be  separately 
published.  Since  that  time  I  have  taken  no 
further  interest  in  issues  of  the  volume,  for 
its  value  mainly  depended  on  the  Address- 


viii  Preface  to  Reprint  of 

being  accompanied  by  Mr.  Ruskin's  Letters, 
and  the  Letters  by  the  Address.  I  have  been 
repeatedly  pressed  of  late  years  to  reissue 
them  together.  For  this  and  for  other  reasons 
I  consent.  These  reasons  are  closely  related 
to  the  state  of  Science  and  of  Art  in  the  middle 
of  this  century,  and  specially  to  Mr.  Ruskin's 
connexion  with  the  advance  of  modern  Thought 
and  Education.  Now  that  the  building,  in- 
complete as  it  still  is,  is  devoted  to  the  actual 
work  of  Science,  the  history  of  its  Art  is 
practically  forgotten.  The  Address  was  given 
in  1858,  by  their  desire,  to  Architectural 
Societies  while  the  Museum  was  still  in 
course  of  erection.  There  were  two  reasons 
why  the  building  excited  their  attention. 

The  one,  a  general  interest  in  the  progress 
and  development  of  Scientific  Education  in  the 
old  University. 

The  other,  interest  in  the  manner  in  which 
the  edifice  was  being  erected,  and  in  the 
persons  who  were  concerned  therein. 


'  The  Oxford  Museum '  ix 

It  was  widely  known  that  the  object,  and 
the  method  of  carrying  it  out,  were  then 
violently  opposed  in  the  University.  Every 
grant  was  carried  in  Convocation  by  a 
narrow  majority.  That  for  the  gas-pipes  for 
lighting  the  Court,  for  instance,  was  carried. 
That  for  the  burners  was  lost  by  two.  It  is 
often  supposed  that  this  was  chiefly  owing 
to  a  dominant  theological  party.  This  was 
not  the  fact.  It  is  true  that  one  Vice- 
Chancellor,  a  religious  leader,  gave  as  the 
reason  of  his  opposition  that  Science  tends  to 
Infidelity — a  strange  argument  for  a  believer  in 
a  Creator.  But  it  is  also  true  that  Dr.  Pusey, 
then,  except  Mr.  Newman,  perhaps  the  greatest 
power  in  the  University,  replying  to  a  young 
teacher  of  science,  who  asked  whether  it  was 
to  be  counted  a  danger  and  an  evil  if  he  sought 
faithfully  to  discharge  tke  duty  committed  to 
his  care,  said :  (  The  desire  to  acquire  scientific 
knowledge  and  the  power  to  attain  it  are  alike 
the  gift  of  God,  and  are  to  be  used  as  such. 


x  Preface  to  Reprint  of 

While  I  see  you  reverently  acting  in  this 
sense  you  may  rely  on  my  help,  whenever  I 
can  give  it/  Ten  years  afterwards,  the  final 
vote  in  Convocation  for  the  Museum  would 
have  been  lost  but  for  Dr.  Pusey  and  his 
friends,  who  supported  Dr.  Cotton,  the  then 
Vice-Chancellor,  when  he  took  a  wider  and 
truer  view  of  man  and  of  truth  than  his 
predecessor. 

When,  at  the  competition  for  designs,  two 
were  selected — one  Gothic,  by  Sir  Thomas 
Dean  and  Mr.  Woodward,  one  Renaissance, 
by  Mr.  Barry — Mr.  Ruskin  strongly  advocated 
the  Gothic,  not  so  much  perhaps  for  the 
actual  design,  as  for  the  relative  value  of 
Gothic  Architecture.  It  was  quite  understood 
that  no  building  could  be  satisfactorily  com- 
pleted for  the  proposed  amount,  and  provide 
what  the  several  Professors  even  at  that  time 
required.  Economy,  not  completeness,  was 
practically  the  first  object  with  even  the 
majority.  One  condition,  therefore,  with  those 


'  The  Oxford  Museum J  xi 

who  were  in  earnest,  was  an  Architecture  which 
readily  lent  itself  to  extension  in  any  direction, 
as  enlargement  was  called  for.  Now  this  was 
essentially  the  character  of  every  period  of 
good  Gothic.  The  actual  design  attracted 
much  attention,  more  even  than  the  contest 
whether  modern  Science  should  really  find  a 
worthy  dwelling-place  in  Oxford.  That  point 
was  now  settled.  Henceforward  it  was  with 
the  Science  workers  a  matter  of  care  that  the 
building  should  be  rapidly  completed,  and 
fitted  for  scientific  work  in  the  most  practical 
manner.  But  Mr.  Ruskin  and  others  felt 
heartily  that  a  larger  debt  than  that  was  due 
to  the  Scientific  study  of  Nature.  f  Nature/ 
said  Sir  Thomas  Brown,  ( is  the  Art  of  God/ 
The  University  owed  both  to  the  Nation  and 
to  the  student  of  Nature,  however  simple  and 
self-denying  his  ways,  that  his  surroundings 
should  be  at  least  as  decent  and  as  convenient 
for  his  studies  as  are  the  Libraries  to  the 
student  of  Letters,  the  Common  Room  or  the 


xii  Preface  to  Reprint  of 

College  Halls  to  the  recreation  of  the  scholars. 
Once  on  a  time  any  place  was  good  enough  for 
a  Medical  Student.  The  neglect  of  him  by 
Governments  was  a  proverb.  What  was  the 
result  ?  A  surgeon  of  note  was  shown  to  me 
when  I  entered  my  profession,  as  the  one  man 
strong  enough  to  carry  away  a  body  under 
each  arm  from  a  graveyard,  for  the  cbody 
snatchers'  at  a  '  Resurrection  party/  When 
for  the  first  time  I  opened  the  door  of  a 
dissecting-room,  a  stalwart  porter  in  blue 
apron,  shirt  sleeves  tucked  up,  threw  towards 
the  lofty  skylight  a  black  and  putrid  human 
head,  and,  kicking  out  his  foot  in  jest,  called 
out  to  the  students  :  ( Who  wants  a  kick  ? '  and 
caught  his  football  in  his  hands.  In  so  far 
as  surroundings  in  work  can  influence  the 
tone  of  those  who  enter  them,  Ruskin  and 
his  friends  helped  to  make  association  of  this 
kind  impossible,  and  students  of  medicine 
would  not  now  tolerate  them.  They  are 
banished  for  ever. 


'  The  Oxford  Museum '  xiii 

I  must  not  say  more  on  this  point,  for 
Ruskin's  Letters,  now  happily  republished  here, 
together  with  the  slight  sketch  in  the  Address 
to  which  they  refer,  say  that  which  I  could 
never  say.  The  studies  of  the  Museum  are 
the  study  of  the  Universe  in  a  National  Uni- 
versity ;  of  Nature  in  its  Unity,  and  in  its 
several  component  parts,  in  its  history,  in  its 
relation  to  her  Maker  and  to  Man.  Mr.  Ruskin 
was  worthily  supported  by  the  then  young 
artists  who  as  Pre-Raphaelite  Brothers  pre- 
sently attained  their  great  reputation,  as  well 
as  by  Mr.  Watts  and  Mr.  Woolner  and  others. 
I  must  not  here  attempt  to  describe  how  this 
happened,  or  what  they  did.  They  gathered 
with  enthusiasm  round  Ruskin  and  Woodward. 
Dante  Rossetti,  Morris,  Alexander  Munro, 
Millais,  Holman  Hunt,  Pollen,  Woolner, 
aided  every  step  with  the  deepest  interest. 
Several  painted — unpaid — historical  designs  on 
the  large  roof  of  the  Union  Library  which 
Woodward  built.  Munro  executed  four  of  the 


xiv  Preface  to  Reprint  of 

five  statues,  most  generously  most  helpfully 
given  by  Her  Gracious  Majesty.  Under  the 
inspiration  of  these  Artists  the  workmen 
designed  capitals  illustrating  the  natural  orders 
of  plants.  Friends  gave  the  polished  shafts, 
more  than  one  hundred  in  number,  to  illustrate 
British  Rocks  :  Ruskin,  three  hundred  pounds 
to  improve  the  work  of  one  set  of  windows. 
The  University  was  not  asked  to  contribute 
one  of  these.  Love  of  Art,  Love  of  Nature, 
Love  of  Science,  Love  of  working-men,  in  their 
several  bearings,  practical,  poetical,  heart- 
lifting,  animated  all  concerned.  As  I  look 
back  over  the  thirty-nine  years,  I  feel  that 
Ruskin,  Woodward  and  Deane  were  the  centre 
of  all.  Much  might  (and  one  day  should)  be 
said  of  the  direction  of  work  and  thought 
when  the  Museum,  though  incomplete  both  for 
Science  and  for  Art,  became,  unfinished  as  it 
was,  the  chief  Laboratory  of  the  University 
for  instruction  and  research.  It  has  had  a 
chequered  career,  in  which  there  are,  and 


'  The  Oxford  Museum '  xv 

must  be,  for  joy  and  for  hope,  some  things 
to  regret. 

Unwilling  as  I  am  to  add  one  mournful  touch 
to  a  story  of  effort  and  success,  it  would  be 
unjust  to  Mr.  Ruskin  and  unfair  to  the  Museum 
and  my  readers  not  to  record  here  how  the 
Museum  became,  some  twenty  years  afterwards, 
the  cause  of  Mr.  Ruskin's  resignation,  and  of 
his  withdrawal  from  Oxford.  In  1881  Professor 
Rolleston,  who  had  been  the  first  Professor  of 
Anatomy  and  Physiology  after  the  Museum  was 
erected, — a  man  of  rare  acquirements,  noble 
heart,  and  indomitable  energy, — was  taken 
from  us.  We  had  long  felt  that  his  Professor- 
ship, important  as  its  establishment  had  been 
in  its  first  form,  embraced  a  range  of  biological 
subjects  too  great  for  any  man  in  the  rapid 
growth  of  Science.  It  was  therefore  on  his  death 
divided  into  a  Chair  of  Anatomy  and  a  Chair 
of  Physiology.  To  the  former  Chair  Rolleston's 
favourite  pupil  Moseley,  whom  he  had  trained, 
and  for  whom  with  true  insight  he  had  obtained 


xvi  Preface  to  Reprint  of 

the  post  of  Naturalist  to  H.  M.  S.  Challenger, 
was  appointed ;  to  the  latter,  Dr.  Burdon- 
Sanderson,  already  famous  for  the  breadth  and 
depth  of  his  biological  knowledge,  normal  and 
abnormal,  and  specially  of  medicine,  scientific 
and  pathological.  The  University  voted  at 
once  a  large  sum  for  the  construction  of 
Physiological  Laboratories  on  Dr.  Sanderson's 
designs.  Afterwards,  when  a  grant  of  £500 
a  year  was  proposed  to  Convocation  for  carry- 
ing on  the  work  in  them,  a  violent  concerted 
opposition  was  organized  :  non-residents  were 
brought  up  from  all  parts  of  the  country, 
and  a  scene  ensued  in  the  Sheldonian  Theatre 
such  as  in  the  last  half  century  has  but 
once  before  been  witnessed.  The  attack  was 
led  with  intense  earnestness  by  the  late 
Professor  Freeman.  The  objection  was  the 
practical  recognition  of  vivisection,  in  which 
Professor  Sanderson  was  a  famous  expert, 
and  author  of  an  important  manual  thereon. 
The  grant  was  carried.  Mr.  Ruskin  resigned 


1  The  Oxford  Museum '  xvii 

his  Professorship  by  a  formal  letter  to  the  Vice- 
Chancellor. 

This  is  not  the  place  to  enter  upon  the 
merits  of  experimental  researches  on  living 
beings  except  in  relation  to  Mr.  Ruskin. 
Few  probably  would  now  doubt  that  the  time 
was  already  past  for  taking  the  course  which 
he  felt  to  be  his  duty.  The  Professor  had  been 
appointed.  His  laboratories  had  been  erected. 
To  make  the  work,  judged  by  him  to  be  right, 
impossible  was  hopelessly  illogical.  Moreover, 
a  large  part  of  physiological  instruction  does 
not  involve  fresh  experiments  on  living  ani- 
mals, and  none  can  be  performed  in  England 
before  students  without  special  license  granted 
under  the  Act  of  Parliament.  But  the 
sad  fact  of  Mr.  Huskies  decision  remains. 
How  did  it  happen  ?  Had  he  not  till  now 
been  aware  that  much  of  modern  Physiology 
rested  upon  experiment  on  animals  while  their 
structures,  marvellous  and  complex,  were 
capable  of  being  observed  in  action?  or  was 
B 


xviii  Preface  to  Reprint  of 

it  that  his  sympathetic  character  was  stirred 
by  sudden  impulse,  so  that  he  refused,  as  a 
Member  of  the  University,  to  be  personally 
responsible  for  that  which  his  whole  nature 
abhorred  ?  Is  he  wholly  wrong  ?  The  temper, 
perhaps,  of  the  age  replies,  wholly.  His  voice 
for  controversy  is  now  silent.  I  have  neither 
his  speech  nor  his  pen.  But  I  write  now  at 
Brantwood,  in  the  Holy  Land,  as  it  has  been 
called,  of  Wordsworth;  and  looking  back  on 
the  history  of  Ruskin's  life  and  character,  I 
am  not  surprised. 

It  is  a  great  error,  however,  to  think  of 
Ruskin  as  without  scientific  insight.  He  might 
have  written  Wordsworth's  pregnant  lines  : 

'Yet  do  I  exult, 

Casting  reserve  away,  exult  to  see 
An  intellectual  mastery  exercised 
O'er  the  blind  elements ;  a  purpose  given, 
A  perseverance  fed ;  almost  a  soul 
Imparted  to  brute  matter.     I  rejoice 
Measuring  the  force  of  those  gigantic  powers 
That,  by  the  thinking  mind,  have  been  compelled 
To  serve  the  will  of  feeble-bodied  Man.' 


'The  Oxford  Museum*  xix 

Still  more  would  Ruskin  have  been  disposed 
to  sing : 

1  To  every  Form  of  being  is  assigned 
An  active  principle  :  however  removed 
From  sense  and  observation  it  subsists 
In  all  things,  in  all  natures,  in  the  stars 
Of  azure  heaven,  the  unenduring  clouds, 
In  flower  and  tree,  in  every  pebbly  stone 
That  paves  the  brooks,  the  stationary  rocks, 
The  moving  waters,  and  the  invisible  air. 
Whate'er  exists  hath  properties  that  spread 
Beyond  itself,  communicating  good, 
A  simple  blessing,  or  with  evil  mixed. 
Spirit  that  knows  no  insulated  spot, 
No  chasm,  no  solitude  :  from  link  to  link 
It  circulates,  the  soul  of  all  the  worlds. 
This  is  the  freedom  of  the  Universe, 
Unfolded  still  the  more,  more  visible 
The  more  we  know.' 

We  can  imagine  Ruskin  saying  with  Words- 
worth :  c  The  poet  .  .  .  converses  with  general 
nature^  with  affections  akin  to  those  which 
through  labour  and  length  of  time  the  man  of 
science  has  raised  up  in  himself^  by  conversing 
with  those  particular  parts  of  Nature  which 
are  the  objects  of  his  studies/ 

But  the  whole  nature  of  Ruskin  resists  the 
limited  study  of  Nature  which  takes  a  part  for 


xx  Preface  to  Reprint  of 

the  whole,  which  studies  the  material  structure 
of  Man,  forgetting  the  higher  aspirations  and 
properties  for  which  that  structure  seems  to 
exist  on  earth — to  bring  him  into  communion 
with  the  Infinite — and  through  the  Infinite  to 
the  love  of  all  things  living  with  Man  or  for  him. 

The  affection  which  burns  within  him  for 
the  lowliest  of  men,  he  extends  in  their  degree 
to  all  creatures  that  live  and  feel,  while  he 
dwells  with  keenest  insight  on  the  beauty 
and  action  and  structure  of  all  created  things, 
bringing  in  more  than  one  direction  a  vigour 
of  language  and  of  thought  scarce  ever  rivalled, 
never  surpassed. 

I  was  grieved  (though  I  am  aware  many  do 
not  agree  with  me),  in  relation  to  the  higher 
appreciation  of  Nature,  when  it  was  decided 
not  to  attach  portions  of  the  Botanical 
Gardens  to  the  precincts  of  the  Museum, 
bringing  the  living  flora  to  illustrate  and  be 
illustrated  by  the  extinct.  I  regretted  also 
that  the  opportunity  was  lost  for  making 


'The  Oxford  Museum'  xxi 

suitable  arrangements,  in  the  eighty  acres  then 
purchased^  for  the  study  of  such  animals, 
whether  in  health  or  disease,  as  might  main- 
tain a  constant  interest  and  delight  in  Life 
in  action,  in  as  many  forms  as  could  be 
conveniently  displayed1.  Life  in  action,  with 
the  habits  thereto  pertaining,  is  a  study  as 
worthy  as  is  the  machinery  which  makes,  pre- 
serves, and  brings  it  to  a  close.  It  is  a  fault 
in  most  museums  that  only  the  mechanism  of 
life  and  not  its  living  actions  are  displayed. 
Sir  William  Flower  to  some  extent,  and  as  far 
perhaps  as  London  needs,  has  remedied  this. 

These  general  thoughts  may  seem  strange 
to  those  in  Oxford  who,  from  imperfect 

1  In  the  Appendix  the  Laboratories  rebuilt  or  added 
to  the  Museum  since  its  first  erection  are  shown  on  a 
ground  plan,  namely,  for  the  Departments  of  Physics,  of 
Chemistry,  of  Physiology,  of  Comparative  Anatomy,  of 
Human  Anatomy,  of  Geology,  besides  the  Pitt-Rivers 
Museum  and  its  work-rooms,  and  the  Astronomical 
Observatory.  More  space  is  required,  notably  for  the 
Radcliffe  Library,  a  large  Lecture  Room,  and  the  Hope 
Collections.  The  University  can  provide  as  many  acres 
as  from  time  to  time  are  needed  without  detriment  to 
the  Parks. 


xxii  Preface  to  Reprint  of 

knowledge,  desire  to  change  the  Museum  into 
a  so-called  ( medical  school/  They  perhaps 
have  not  reflected  on  the  loss  that  they  will 
inflict  on  the  Profession  of  Medicine  if  they 
succeed.  Forty  years  ago  it  was  hoped 
to  add  to  the  wide  Philosophical,  Historical, 
Theological  life  of  the  old  University  the  means 
for  similar  study  of  the  material  Universe 
considered  alike  in  its  Unity  and  in  its  special 
parts.  It  was  felt  this  would  harmonize  with, 
and  supply,  the  missing  link  in  the  aims  of  the 
old  education.  The  opportunities  were  to  be 
open  to  all,  for  whatever  walk  in  life  destined. 
Adapt  it  only  to  one  Profession  such  as  Medi- 
cine, you  rob  all  others  of  the  larger  oppor- 
tunity, and — which  is  even  worse — persuade 
future  Oxford  graduates  that  Medicine  has  no 
relation  to  Science  as  a  whole;  that  it  is  a 
specialism,  grounded  on  itself  alone,  and  that 
the  essence  of  its  education  is  to  prepare  by 
schedules  for  passing  examinations.  No  greater 
educational  fallacy  can  exist.  To  give  colour 


'The  Oxford  Museum'  xxiii 

to  it  is  a  cruelty  to  all  our  youth.  Our  best 
students  already  feel  this  to  be  so.  The  foun- 
dation by  them  of  the  Robert  Boyle  Lecture  is  a 
proof.  Wider  views  are  held  by  the  best  thinkers, 
even  for  our  Elementary  and  Government 
Schools.  The  conception  is  a  relic  of  days  of 
ignorance.  The  function  of  the  Oxford  Museum 
towards  Medicine  is  to  train  good  scientific 
observers  and  thinkers,  to  become  observers  and 
thinkers  in  pathological  and  therapeutic  and 
preventive  processes.  They  will  then,  I  hope, 
enter  the  vast  field  of  disease  which  is  seen  in  the 
great  hospitals  of  the  Metropolis,  or  other  centres 
of  large  and  diversely  occupied  populations,  as 
broadly  educated  and  really  thoughtful  men. 

May  the  reader  forgive  these  truisms,  re- 
peated after  fifty  years,  in  old  age,  but  not 
without  need !  The  conception  of  Education 
in  the  last  few  years  has  been  greatly  extended 
among  the  masses ;  their  aims  are  no  doubt  in 
several  respects  more  technical,  but  also  more 
philosophical  and  literary.  In  the  North  of 


xxiv        .     Preface  to  Reprint  of 

England  and  in  Scotland,  a  miner  or  a  ( mill- 
hand5  may  be  now  heard  discussing  Butler's 
Analogy,  George  Eliot,  or  Herbert  Spencer,  as 
they  do  portions  of  Roscoe,  Tait,  and  Huxley. 
Biology,  normal  and  abnormal,  in  its  widest 
relations,  is  not  absent  from  the  Higher  Schools 
or  Colleges  for  young  women,  some  of  whom 
so  trained  will  spend  active  lives  in  the 
administration  of  Hospitals  and  Workhouses 
with  gifts  intellectual  and  personal  unknown 
till  now.  There  is  a  great  change  in  the 
influence  of  the  Universities,  whether  for 
abstract  or  applied  Science,  whether  theoretical 
or  practical.  The  effects  of  University  Exten- 
sion and  of  the  Evening  Classes  under  the  New 
Code  of  Education  on  the  national  character 
of  the  masses  can  hardly  as  yet  be  foreseen. 
They  have  a  manifest  bearing  also  on  the 
future  of  the  deeper  and  higher  education  of 
the  professional  classes.  To  train  well-educated 
men  to  be  Science  Teachers  under  County 
Councils  and  in  Secondary  Schools  throughout 


Published  by  iieorge  All? n.  15 6. Charing   J.r  oss  R •-.  a  .1  L  >n  Ion. 


1  The  Oxford  Museum  '  xxv 

the  Country,  is  an  important  and  much  needed 
function  for  Oxford.  It  will,  moreover,  open 
prospects  for  the  highly-trained  Graduates 
through  the  Natural  Science  Honour  School, 
who  are  already  increasing  in  number^  and  are 
beginning  to  do  much  original  work  in  the 
several  Science  Laboratories. 

More  words  from  me  are  now  unnecessary. 
I  conclude  therefore  by  here  recording  a 
message  given  me  to-day  at  Brantwood  by 
Mr.  Ruskin,  when  he  knew  that  the  following 
Address  on  the  Oxford  Museum  was  to  be 
again  published,  together  with  his  Letters, 
after  a  separation  of  thirty  years. 

'  Say  to  my  friends  in  the  Oxford 
Museum  from  me,  May  God  Uess  the 
reverent  and  earnest  study  of  Nature 
and  of  Man,  to  His  glory,  to  the  better 
teaching  of  the  Future,  to  the  benefit  of 
bur  Country,  and  to  the  good  of  all 

Mankind.' 

JOHN  RUSKIN. 

BRANTWOOD,  CONISTON, 
August  14,  1893. 


xxvi  Preface  to  Reprint 

These  pregnant  words  from  the  veteran 
friend  of  the  Institute  for  the  study  of  Nature 
in  Oxford,  are  commended  to  the  generations 
who  will  there  use  the  opportunities,  and 
advance  the  means,  which  he  earnestly  helped 
for  many  years  to  obtain  for  them. 

HENRY  W.  ACLAND. 


PREFACE  TO  THE  SECOND  EDITION 

1860 


HP  HE  Oxford  Museum  slowly  approaches 
completion.  The  building  will  shortly 
sink  into  insignificance  when  compared  to  the 
contents  it  will  display,  and  the  minds  it 
will  mould. 

The  edifice  will,  however,  stand  as  a  record 
of  loving  labour,  bestowed  by  a  pure  and 
refined  artistic  intelligence.  It  had  the 
advantage  of  strong,  but  not  unanimous, 
sympathy.  It  had  not  the  command  of  an 
unlimited  exchequer. 

Now  its  real  work  begins;  we  may  hope 
that  the  country  will  year  by  year  feel  more 
clearly  the  value  of  its  scientific  training,  when 
engrafted  in  its  due  measure  into  the  general 
education  of  the  Old  University. 


xxviii       Preface  to  the  Second  Edition 

The  present  edition  gives  the  subjects  of 
most  of  the  carvings,  the  localities  of  the 
geological  strata  illustrated  by  the  shafts,,  lists 
of  the  statues  erected,  and  of  the  statues  which 
are  yet  desired. 

To  the  original  remarks,  at  the  expense,  it  is 
true,  of  chronological  accuracy,  there  have  now 
been  added,  here  and  there,  descriptions  which 
correspond  to  the  progress  of  the  building. 
This  seemed  preferable  to  retaining  statements 
now  inapplicable. 

H.  W.  A. 

OXFORD, 
June  15,  1860. 


PREFACE  TO  THE  FIRST  EDITION 


following  pages  contain  the  substance 
of  some  remarks  which  were  made  to  the 
members  of  the  Architectural  Societies,  at  their 
request,  that  met  in  Oxford  in  the  summer  of 
last  year.  Pressing  duties  have  hindered  me 
till  now  from  committing  to  paper,  as  nearly 
as  my  memory  serves  me,  the  matter  of  what 
was  then  said.  I  am  induced,  however,  thus 
tardily  to  comply  with  a  request  made  by 
various  persons,  that  these  remarks  should  be 
printed,  because  visitors  in  Oxford  frequently 
seek  information  similar  to  that  which  it  was 
my  aim  then  to  furnish. 

It  is,  moreover,  imperative  on  me  to  give 
the  utmost  publicity  I  can  to  the  letters  which 
Mr.  Ruskin  has  addressed  to  me,  the  first  in 


xxx         Preface  to  the  First  Edition 

June  last,  and  the  second  in  January  of  this 
year,  when  I  informed  him  I  was  about  to  print 
these  remarks.  It  may  seem  presumptuous 
that  I  should  couple  my  own  name  with  his 
in  a  question  which  is  partly  one  of  Art; 
but  we  both  feel  pleasure  in  recording  that, 
when  fellow-undergraduates  at  Christ  Church, 
we  sketched  together;  and  that,  after  a  lapse 
of  twenty  years,  we  received  on  the  same  day 
the  high  distinction  of  an  Honorary  Student- 
ship ;  because,  though  following  divergent 
paths,  we  have  honestly  and  laboriously  culti- 
vated the  Arts  which  we  respectively  profess. 
To  the  intercourse  on  Art,  and  many  kindred 
subjects,  which  for  more  than  twenty  years  I 
have  had  with  Dr.  Liddell,  the  present  Dean  of 
Christ  Church,  with  John  Ruskin,  Charles 
Newton,  and  George  Richmond,  I  owe  many 
happy  hours  of  rest  in  the  midst  of  happy 
labour,  and  am  little  disposed  to  forego  the 
right  to  seek  recreation  in  this  or  any  other 
reasonable  manner,  because  I  am  a  Physician. 


Preface  to  the  First  Edition       xxxi 

On  the  contrary,  I  here  declare  that,  though 
a  man  may  be  seduced  from  his  duty,  to  his 
after  misery,  by  any  other  absorbing  interest, 
I  yet  believe  that  frequent  intercourse  with 
men  engaged  in  other  intellectual  pursuits,  is, 
in  my  profession  at  least,  almost  necessary  to 
form  a  complete  professional  mind.  I  appeal 
to  History  in  confirmation. 

But,  on  the  other  side,  I  should  be  deeply 
pained,  if  in  consequence  of  the  interest  I 
profess  in  the  Art  of  the  Oxford  Museum,  it 
were  supposed  by  any  whose  opinion  I  value, 
either  that  I  consider  Art  a  subject  on  which 
amateurs  can  have  perfect  judgement,  or  that 
it  is  a  matter  which  a  Physician  can  seriously 
pursue.  Yet  I  am  of  opinion  that  it  is  the 
duty  of  all  persons  who  can  help  true- 
hearted  and  earnest  Artists  in  these  days,  to 
aid  in  protecting  them  against  unjust  depre- 
ciation in  efforts  which,  from  many  causes  in 
this  century  and  in  our  country,  are  neces- 
sarily, among  the  best  men,  tentative.  Many 


xxxii         Preface  to  the  First  Edition 

have  yet  to  learn  the  apparently  simple  truth, 
that  to  an  Artist  his  Art  is  his  means  of  proba- 
tion in  this  life;  and  that,  whatever  it  may 
have  of  frivolity  to  us,  to  him  it  is  as  the  two 
or  the  five  talents,  to  be  accounted  for  here- 
after. I  might  say  much  on  this  point,  for 
the  full  scope  of  the  word  Art  seems  by  some 
to  be  even  now  unrecognised.  Before  the 
period  of  printing,  Art  was  the  largest  mode 
of  permanently  recording  human  thought;  it 
was  spoken  in  every  epoch,  in  all  countries, 
and  delivered  in  almost  every  material.  In 
buildings,  on  medals  and  coins,  in  porcelain 
and  earthenware,  on  wood,  ivory,  parchment, 
paper  and  canvas,  the  graver  or  the  pencil  has 
recorded  the  ideas  of  every  form  of  society,  of 
every  variety  of  race  and  of  every  character. 
What  wonder  that  the  Artist  is  jealous  of  his 
craft,  and  proud  of  his  brotherhood  ?  But 
as  I  hope  that  the  time  draws  nigh  when 
the  professorial  staff  of  Oxford  will  include 
a  Professor  of  Art,  I  had  better  desist,  and 


Preface  to  the  First  Edition         xxxiii 

leave  the  matter  in  his  hands.  With  the 
Art  of  this  building,  at  all  events,  I  have 
nothing  whatever  to  do,  except  earnestly  to 
aid  in  giving  fair  play  and  full  opportunity 
to  the  eminently  skilful  persons,  Deane  and 
Woodward,  who  are  now  executing  the  work. 
For  me  and  my  fellow-teachers  there,  it  is  a 
place  of  other  work  altogether ;  and  were  it  not 
that,  as  a  Professor,  I  owe  duty  in  this  thing  to 
the  University,  as  a  Physician,  I  might  regret 
every  moment  I  had  ever  expended  in  aiding 
the  architects  in  the  Art  part  of  their  under- 
taking. In  the  department  of  Natural  Science 
and  of  Medicine  there  is  far  too  much  yet  to 
be  done  in  this  place,  to  allow  any  one,  who 
is  connected  with  them  and  has  a  choice  in  the 
matter,  either  time  or  energy  for  other  occu- 
pations, unless  by  change  they  bring  him  the 
rest  he  needs.  Like  all  other  ancient  things, 
Medicine  is  undergoing  a  stern  cross-exami- 
nation; it  is  learning  more  and  more  that, 
without  depending  wholly  on  positive  science 
c 


xxxiv         Preface  to  the  First  Edition 

for  its  practical  Art, — a  thing  which  never  can 
be, — it  can  no  longer  go  on  without  every  aid 
that  science  can  afford;  and  therefore  its  dis- 
ciples will  all  welcome  such  a  building  as  is 
the  subject  of  this  Lecture,  because  it  bids 
fair  in  a  few  years  to  disseminate  widely, 
among  a  class  of  influential  persons  not  hitherto 
reached,  a  knowledge  of  physiological  truth 
and  the  truths  of  nature  in  general :  because 
also  it  will  help  to  keep  before  many  of  our 
most  cultivated  minds  and  our  most  influential 
thinkers,  the  principles  of  sanitary  knowledge 
in  all  its  branches.  I  may  not  here  dilate  on 
this  great  national  question ;  but  they  who  look 
ahead  will  see,  without  aid  from  my  pen,  what 
mutual  benefits  will  accrue  from  a  closer  union 
of  the  Sciences  at  the  root  of  Medicine  with  the 
old  Universities ;  and  will  further  perceive  that 
for  the  well-being  of  those  very  Sciences,  the 
Practical  Art  which  is  in  one  sense  their  highest 
goal,  must  live,  and  make  itself  heard  in  its  own 
peculiar  notes,  and  strange,  unwritten  speech. 


Preface  to  the  First  Edition        xxxv 

I  must  not,  however,  allow  myself  now  to 
describe  the  full  scope  and  prospects  of  an  edu- 
cational institution,  such  as  this  Museum ;  and 
yet  I  cannot  bring  to  a  close  a  preface  already 
too  long  for  a  description  which  is  too  short, 
without  repeating  words  which  I  ventured  to 
use  ten  years  ago *  on  this  subject : — 

'With  respect  to  the  proposal  to  add  some 
study  of  the  fundamental  arrangements  of  the 
natural  world  to  the  general  education  of  the 
place,  I  fear  that  if  we  do  not  add  it,  we  may 
live  to  see,  what  would  be  a  great  national 
evil,  such  knowledge  substituted  for  our  pre- 
sent system/ 

The  addition  has  been  made;  the  substitu- 
tion is,  I  hope,  averted.  The  further  my 
observation  has  extended,  the  more  satisfied  I 
am  that  no  knowledge  of  things  will  supply  the 
place  of  the  early  study  of  Letters — 'literae 

1  See  page  39  of  '  Eemarks  on  the  Extension  of  Educa- 
tion in  the  University  of  Oxford.'  Oxford :  J.  H.  Parker. 

1848. 

C  2 


xxxvi        Preface  to  the  First  Edition 

humaniores/  Recent  changes  in  the  French 
Universities  fully  confirm  this  opinion.  I  do 
not  doubt  the  value  of  any  honest  mental 
labour.  Indeed,  since  the  material  working 
of  the  Creator  has  been  so  far  displayed  to 
our  gaze,  it  is  both  dangerous  and  full  of 
impiety  to  resist  its  ennobling  influence,  even 
on  the  ground  that  His  moral  work  is  greater. 
But  notwithstanding  this,  the  study  of  lan- 
guage, of  history,  and  of  the  thoughts  of  great 
men,  which  they  exhibit,  seems  to  be  almost 
necessary  (as  far  as  learning  is  necessary  at 
all)  for  disciplining  the  heart,  for  elevating  the 
soul,  and  for  preparing  the  way  for  the  growth 
in  the  young,  of  their  personal  spiritual  life : 
while,  on  the  other  side,  the  best  corrective 
to  pedantry  in  scholarship,  and  to  conceit  in 
mental  philosophy,  is  the  study  of  the  facts  and 
laws  exhibited  by  Natural  Science. 

OXFORD, 
Feb.  1,  1859. 


THE  OXFOBD  MUSEUM 


TTTHEN  a  critic  in  Art  approaches  an 
architectural  edifice,  he  asks,  first,  to 
what  uses  is  this  building  destined  ? — next, 
how  far  does  it  in  a  skilful  manner  inter- 
weave beauty  with  convenience  of  arrange- 
ment ? — and  how  far,  subjected  to  the  imposed 
conditions  of  climate,  site,  and  accessibility 
of  materials,  does  it  express  the  object  for 
which  it  was  intended? 

You,  therefore,  who  come  as  critics,  ask 
three  things,  and  in  answer,  I  will  endeavour 
to  state: — 

i  st.  The  circumstances  which  in  the  history 
of  Oxford  made  this  effort  for  enlarging  her 
means  of  education  necessary. 

2ndly.  The  objects  which  those  members  of 


2       Necessity  for  Extended  Education 

the  University  who  for  many  years  advocated 
this  design  have  steadily  kept  in  view. 

3rdly.  The  way  in  which  the  Architects 
have  performed  the  task  assigned  to  them. 

In  other  words,  it  is  my  duty  to  relate  why 
extension  of  our  buildings  was  necessary; 
what  is  the  object  of  that  extension ;  and 
what  was  the  spirit  in  which  the  required 
building  has  been  erected. 

FIRST,  then,  as  to  the  causes  which  called 
for  extension  of  the  national  education  at 
Oxford  in  the  direction  of  Natural  Science. 
These  must  be  briefly  stated. 

The  great  tide  of  human  thought  had  set 
for  centuries,  and  down  even  to  the  close  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  chiefly  in  the  direction 
of  speculative  reasoning,  poetry,  or  history. 
Many  circumstances  in  the  condition  of  the 
world  tended  to  repress  the  outbreak  of  in- 
quiring and  eager  interest  in  external  Nature, 
which  about  the  time  of  the  discovery  of  the 


Narrow-mindedness  in  Studies          3 

New  World  dawned  upon  all  the  educated 
part  of  mankind.  It  is  not  other  than  both 
remarkable  and  humiliating,  that  some  of  those 
who  studied  and  taught  the  mental  science 
of  Aristotle,  or  the  speculative  dogmas  of  the 
schoolmen,  should  have  wholly  forgotten  the 
successful  energy  which  Aristotle  and  Galen, 
in  the  very  dawn  of  literature,  had  expended 
on  investigating  the  laws  of  organic  life.  It 
is  probable,  indeed,  that  the  very  condition 
of  the  Church  in  the  Middle  Ages,  which  led 
men  to  study  the  Bible  less  and  value  their 
own  fancies  more,  did,  in  fact,  close  their  eyes 
to  the  astonishing  revelations  of  the  unwritten 
as  well  as  of  the  written  Word  of  God. 

Oxford,  fthe  ancient  seat  of  learning,'  was 
not  exempt  from  this  intellectual  one-sidedness. 
It  chiefly  cultivated  classic  lore,  and  pursued 
the  metaphysical  notions  of  the  schoolmen; 
even  these  were  not  always  taught  in  the 
far-seeing  spirit  of  true  philosophy.  It  has 


4          Slow  Growth  of  Wider  Studies 

taken  some  centuries  from  the  epoch  of  Roger 
Bacon,  followed  here  by  Boyle,  Harvey,  Lin- 
acre,  and  Sydenham,  besides  nearly  200  years 
of  unbroken  publication  of  the  Royal  Society's 
Transactions,  to  persuade  this  great  English 
University  to  engraft,  as  a  substantial  part  of 
the  education  of  her  youth,  any  knowledge  of 
the  great  material  design  of  which  the  Supreme 
Master- Worker  has  made  us  a  constituent  part. 
cThe  study  of  mankind/  indeed,  was  fMan'; 
but  in  Oxford  it  was  Man  viewed  apart  from 
all  those  external  circumstances  and  conditions 
by  which  his  probation  on  earth  was  made  by 
his  Maker  possible,  and  through  whose  agency, 
for  good  or  evil,  his  life  here,  and  preparation 
for  life  hereafter,  were  ordained. 

Seeing,  then,  all  these  things,  many  here 
in  Oxford,  not  so  much  by  concert,  as  by 
that  strange  unanimity  which  comes  to  some 
subjects  in  the  fulness  of  their  time,  felt  as 
by  an  instinct,  that  they  might  not  rest  until 


Yearning  for  Material  Knowledge       5 

means  for  rightly  studying  what  is  vouchsafed 
for  man  to  know  of  this  universe  were  accorded 
to  the  youth  committed  to  their  care,  and  to 
themselves.  From  such  causes,  and  from  so  deep 
convictions,  has  arisen  the  Oxford  Museum. 

Nor  was  the  present  an  inappropriate  or 
unexpected  time  for  a  work  conceived  in  this 
temper.  Oxford  possessed  more  than  the 
current  knowledge  of  the  day;  and  the  light 
which  had  been  brought  so  multifariously  to 
bear  on  Nature,  by  many  great  minds  in 
Europe,  from  Bacon  to  Cuvier,  had  been 
specially  imparted  to  us  in  the  first  half  of 
this  century.  Partly  by  oral  instruction  from 
Kidd,  Buckland,  Daubeny,  Walker,  the  two 
Duncans,  and  many  others,  both  in  their 
several  lecture-rooms,  and  within  the  walls 
of  old  Elias  Ashmole ;  and  partly,  I  must 
add,  by  the  various  enlightened  acts  and 
wise  expenditure  of  the  Radcliffe  Trustees. 
They  many  years  since  devoted  their  library 


6  Care  for  the  Future 

entirely  to  works  on  Medicine  and  Natural 
History,  expending  large  sums,  restricted  only 
by  the  little  fruit  they  bore;  they  have  also, 
by  the  development  of  a  first-class  Observatory, 
and  especially  through  the  labours  of  Manuel 
Johnson,  added  new  lustre  to  the  University 
of  Halley,  and  Bradley,  and  Gregory. 

To  enlarge,  however,  on  all  the  details  of 
this  progress  would  be  now  of  little  interest. 
We  look  more  to  the  future  than  to  the  past. 
Thankful  for  the  benefits  we  have  inherited, 
and  jealous  of  the  honour  of  our  fathers,  we, 
as  practical  men,  take  still  deeper  interest  in 
the  destiny  of  our  children, — desiring  that 
we  leave  them  not  worse  provided  in  the  gifts 
of  their  age,  than  by  God's  mercy  and  the 
foreseeing  nobleness  of  our  forefathers,  we 
found  ourselves  in  those  of  our  own. 

You  ask,  in  the  SECOND  place,  What  objects 
have  the  promoters  of  the  Museum  kept  in 
view  while  advocating  its  erection  ? 


What  is  Natural  History  ?  7 

f  There  are  two  books/  says  Sir  T.  Browne, 
'  from  which  I  collect  my  divinity ;  besides  that 
written  one  of  God,  another  of  His  servant, 
Nature, — that  universal  and  public  manuscript 
that  lies  expansed  unto  the  eyes  of  all/  In 
this  term  e Nature'  are,  of  course,  included 
every  known  and  observed  form  of  matter  by 
which  our  world  and  its  inhabitants  were 
either  made  or  are  maintained,  and  whatever 
laws  of  their  construction  or  for  their  main- 
tenance have  by  reason  been  inferred.  No 
less  signification  of  the  word  Nature  will  in 
the  present  day  be  accepted;  the  limitation 
of  the  term  History  of  Nature  to  a  small 
portion  of  the  biological  sciences  is  not  now, 
of  course,  admitted.  But  even  this  explana- 
tion does  not  adequately  express  the  idea  of 
the  word  Nature;  the  word  implies  not  only 
the  facts  and  the  laws  that  have  been  noted 
in  the  structure  and  peopling  of  the  globe, 
but  still  more,  the  relation  which  all  those 


8     Divisions  in  Natural  History  Studies 

facts  and  laws  bear  to  each  other,  in  one 
harmonious  whole ;  and  yet  one  step  further,, 
in  some  limited  instances,  the  first  glimpses 
of  unuttered  ideas — traces  (as  some  believe), 
though  we  see  them  darkly  as  in  a  mirror, 
of  unexpressed  Art  of  the  great  Artificer. 

To  state  the  divisions  which  have  been 
found  necessary  or  convenient  for  the  pur- 
poses of  student  or  teacher  in  this  vast  in- 
quiry, is  to  enumerate  the  principal  sciences 
belonging  to  the  History  of  Nature,  and 
therefore  the  departments  to  which,  in  the 
Museum,  places  are  assigned.  In  these 
departments  there  are  many  sub-divisions; 
some  of  which  are  themselves  already  erected 
into  great  and  comprehensive  subjects.  They 
cannot  all  be  separately  represented  here ;  for 
this  educational  institution  is  not  the  effort 
of  a  great  government,  nor  the  exhibition  of 
the  scientific  collections  of  a  nation,  but  an 
abstract,  as  it  were,  fitted  for  the  grasp  of 


The  Stars  ;  the  Earth  9 

a  single  person, — or  a  standing-point,  from 
whence  the  intelligent  learner  may  take  a 
general  survey  of  a  great  field  of  knowledge, 
which,  be  his  powers  what  they  may,  in  his 
lifetime  he  can  never  completely  investigate. 

Our  object,  then,  is — ist,  to  give  the  learner 
a  general  view  of  the  planet  on  which  he  lives, 
of  its  constituent  parts,  and  of  the  relations 
which  it  occupies  as  a  world  among  worlds; 
and  2ndly,  to  enable  him  to  study,  in  the 
most  complete  scientific  manner,  and  for  any 
purpose,  any  detailed  portion  which  his  powers 
qualify  him  to  grasp. 

The  Astronomer,  with  his  apparatus,  may 
here  introduce  the  student  to  the  phenomena 
observed  in  that  space  of  which  we  occupy 
an  infinitesimal  portion,  and  may  explain 
the  means  and  the  powers  by  which  these 
phenomena  have  been  observed  and  can  be 
predicted.  The  Professor  of  Geometry  will  be 
able  to  aid  the  further  explanation  of  those 


io          The  General  Laws  of  Nature 

abstruse  calculations,  bringing  his  knowledge 
to  bear  upon  terrestrial  as  well  as  cosmical 
instances.  In  the  department  of  Experimental 
Physics,  the  student  will,  guided  by  his  teacher, 
submit  to  experiment  (as  far  as  they  obey  the 
hand  or  bend  to  the  skill  of  man),  the  most 
general  agents  and  powers,  which  are  either 
diffused  through  space, — such  as  light ;  or  are 
daily  but  universally  needed  in  the  organic 
or  inorganic  changes  of  our  earth, — as  water 
and  air.  The  Higher  Mathematical  truths 
upon  which  the  theories  of  Experimental 
Physics  depend,  can  be  pursued  by  him  in 
the  class-room  of  the  Professor  of  Natural 
Philosophy.  Scarcely  removed  from  these 
departments,  he  may  next  examine  in  the 
Chemical  laboratories  those  endless  changes, 
which  nature  in  her  ordinary  course,  or  the 
skill  of  man  by  contrived  combinations,  may 
bring  about  in  the  matter  of  which  this  earth 
is  composed, — a  department  which  has  severed 


Life  on  the  Earth  n 

from  itself,  more  for  convenience  than  by 
reason,  its  special  school  of  Mineralogy.  So, 
insensibly,  but  well  prepared,  he  will  approach, 
in  the  Geological  collections  and  afterwards 
among  the  rocks  themselves,  the  study  of  the 
development  of  the  earth,  the  history  of  the 
convulsions  by  which  it  has  attained  its 
present  form,  the  way  in  which  its  surface 
is  disposed,  and,  by  necessity,  the  characters, 
structure,  life,  origin,  and  decay,  of  its  past 
and  present  inhabitants. 

Without  the  Geologist  on  one  side,  and 
the  Anatomist  and  Physiologist  on  the  other, 
Zoology  is  not  worthy  of  its  name.  The 
student  of  life,  bearing  in  mind  the  more 
general  laws  which  in  the  several  departments 
above  named  he  will  have  sought  to  appre- 
ciate, will  find  in  the  collections  of  Zoology, 
combined  with  the  Geological  specimens  and 
the  dissections  of  the  Anatomist,  a  boundless 
field  of  interest  and  of  inquiry,  to  which 


12  Relations  of  Living  Beings 

almost  every  other  science  lends  its  aid :  from 
each   Science   he   borrows   a   special   light   to 
guide  him  through  the  ranges  of  extinct  and 
existing  animal  forms,  from  the  lowest  up  to 
the   highest  type,  which;  last  and  most  per- 
fect,  but  pre-shadowed   in    previous   ages,   is 
seen   in   Man.      By  the   aid    of  physiological 
illustrations  he  begins  to  understand  how  hard 
to  unravel  are  the  complex  mechanisms  and 
prescient  intentions  of  the  Maker  of  all;  and 
he  slowly  learns  to  appreciate  what  exquisite 
care  is  needed  for  discovering  the  real  action 
of  even  an  apparently  comprehended  machine. 
And   so   at  last,  almost   bewildered,  but   not 
cast  down,  he  attempts   to  scrutinize,  in  the 
rooms   devoted   to   Medicine,  the   various   in- 
juries which  man   is   doomed   to   undergo   in 
his    progress    towards    death;    he    begins    to 
revere  the  beneficent  contrivances  which  shine 
forth  in  the  midst  of   suffering   and   disease, 
and   to  veil   his   face    before    the    mysterious 


Disease         •  13 

alterations  of  structure,  to  which  there  seem 
'attached  pain,  with  scarce  relief,  and  a  steady 
advance,  without  a  check,  to  death.  He  will 
look,  and  as  he  looks,  will  cherish  hope,  not 
unmixed  with  prayer,  that  the  great  Art  of 
Healing  may  by  all  these  things  advance,  and 
that  by  the  progress  of  profounder  science, 
by  the  spread  among  the  people  of  the 
resultant  practical  knowledge,  by  stricter 
obedience  to  physiological  laws,  by  a  conse- 
quent more  self-denying  spirit,  some  disorders 
may  at  a  future  day  be  cured,  which  cannot 
be  prevented,  and  some,  perhaps,  prevented, 
which  never  can  be  cured. 

These,  then,  are  the  departments  to  which 
we  assign,  for  mutual  aid,  and  easy  inter- 
change of  reference  and  comparison,  a  com- 
mon habitation  under  one  roof :  Astronomy, 
Geometry,  Experimental  Physics,  with  their 
Mathematics ;  Chemistry,  Mineralogy,  Geo- 
logy, Zoology,  Anatomy,  Physiology,  Medicine. 


14  Cost  of  the  Oxford  Museum 

In  the  THIRD  place,  you  must  consider  the 
way  in  which  the  Architects  have  provided 
for  these  wants. 

It  is  quite  unnecessary  to  describe  more 
particularly  the  steps  by  which  we  obtained 
the  design  which  you  have  come  to  criticize, 
and  which  is  here  brought  to  a  practical 
result,  than  by  saying  generally,  that  the 
Professors  of  the  subjects  which  have  been 
named,  having  decided  on  the  space  which  each 
required  for  satisfying  (I  am  bound  to  say 
in  the  most  limited  manner  consistent  with 
efficiency)  their  several  wants,  the  University 
decided  on  allowing  a  grant  of  £30,000  for 
the  shell  of  the  building,  leaving  to  future 
determination  its  interior  fittings  and  various 
incidental  expenses,  as  warming,  lighting, 
draining,  planting,  fencing,  and  the  like.  In 
the  competition,  scarce  any  limitation  was 
imposed,  and  to  style  none.  Thirty-two  de- 
signs by  anonymous  contributors  were  sent 


Difficulties  of  the  Architects  15 

in.  They  were  in  all  styles.  Some  professed 
advocates  of  Gothic  architecture  on  this  occa- 
sion deprecated  the  application  of  Gothic  Art 
to  secular  purposes, — thereby  denying  to  their 
own  style  that  malleability  which  is,  perhaps, 
its  highest  prerogative.  But  at  length  the 
design  Nisi  Dominus  aedificaverit  domum 
was  selected.  It  turned  out  to  be  by  the 
architects  of  the  Dublin  Museum.  I  have 
seen  no  reason  to  regret  the  decision  of  the 
University. 

It  is  but  just  to  the  Architect  and  to  the 
University,  to  say  to  you  at  once,  that  the 
task  has  been  a  difficult  one.  The  University 
granted  a  sum,  which  was  perhaps  the  most 
it  could,  in  justice  to  other  departments, 
afford  for  the  proposed  purpose ;  the  sum 
was  well  known  to  be  barely  sufficient  to  raise 
a  building  of  the  cubical  contents  which  the 
Professors  required  for  their  several  depart- 
ments; and  therefore  it  must  be  admitted 
D  2 


1 6       The  Architects'  Scrupulous  Care 

at  once,  that,  without  blame  to  either  party, 
there  is  on  all  sides  evidence,  both  in  material 
and  design,  of  a  rigorously  restrained  expen- 
diture, just  as  in  respect  of  material  and  finish 
the  direct  contrary  may  be  noticed  in  another 
structure,  recently  built  for  the  University 
by  my  esteemed  friend  Mr.  Cockerell, — the 
Taylor  Institution. 

Once  for  all  on  the  subject  of  cost, — a 
consideration  of  the  utmost  importance  in  the 
relation  between  employers  and  employed  in 
the  matter  of  building, — I  am  happy  here  to 
record  that  it  is  within  my  personal  know- 
ledge that  extraordinary  and  unsparing  pains 
have  been  taken  by  Woodward  and  Deane, 
to  produce,  often  with  great  additional  labour 
to  themselves,  the  almost  impossible  combina- 
tion of  artistic  effect  and  complete  convenience, 
with  most  limited  means. 

You  who  bring  critical  faculties  and  a 
knowledge  of  building  to  bear  on  the  subject, 


Grounds  for  Choice  of  Style  17 

need  scarcely  be  told  what  is  here  stated. 
It  is  only  to  be  greatly  regretted  that  a 
contrary  opinion  should  have  been  expressed, 
due  in  part  to  ignorance  of  facts,  and  in 
part,  more  unfortunately  still,  to  one  or  two 
accidental  miscalculations  in  constructing 
estimates  for  extra  work,  as  well  as  to  an 
error  in  the  calculated  elasticity  of  wrought- 
iron  supports  to  the  roof. 

No  Physician  will  probably  be  heard  on 
the  subject  of  Art,  so  that  it  were  waste  of 
time,  both  to  you  and  to  me,  to  express, 
even  if  I  hold  them,  many  opinions  on  this 
matter;  but  still,  as  one  of  those  appointed 
by  the  University  to  select  a  design,  it  was 
my  duty  to  satisfy  myself  on  certain  salient 
principles,  of  which  I  will  state  two. 

First,  that  in  the  selection  of  a  style  for 
a  scientific  building,  the  first  consideration 
with  me  was  its  practical  fitness  for  its 
purpose ;  that,  in  this  respect  of  capacity  of 


i8  Laws  of  Gothic 

adaptation  to  any  given  wants,  Gothic  has 
no  superior  in  any  known  form  of  Art,  of  any 
period  or  country;  that  this  being  so,  it  is, 
upon  the  whole,  the  best  suited  to  the  general 
architectural  character  of  mediaeval  Oxford. 

Secondly,  that  supposing  Gothic  to  be 
adopted,  it  must  in  all  respects  adapt  itself 
to  the  necessities  of  the  departments ;  in  no 
way  impose  its  Art  to  the  hindrance  of  our 
convenience ;  it  must  confine  its  ornaments 
to  subjects  more  or  less  connected  with  the 
objects  of  the  building,  as  the  Middle  Age 
architects  confined  their  ecclesiastical  decora- 
tions in  sacred  edifices;  it  must  be  willing  to 
use  whatever  material  the  skill  of  modern  ages 
has  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  builder ;  and 
the  arrangements  of  various  kinds  should  not, 
on  account  of  Gothic  associations,  be  inferior 
in  mechanical  skill  or  other  convenience,  to 
the  forms  or  methods  now  in  general  use. 

Believing   in   these  principles,  I   think   the 


Arrangements  of  the  Building  •      19 

University  was  right  in  adopting  Woodward 
and  Deane's  design.  I  will  not  indulge  myself 
further  on  this  topic,  nor  detain  you  with 
speculations  on  Gothic  Art;  an  old  college 
friend,  and  a  very  different  hand,  will  presently 
do  this  in  the  letter  which  I  shall  read  to  you. 
It  remains  only,  therefore,  to  describe  the 

• 

general  plan  by  which  the  union  has  been 
effected  between  the  professorial  demands 
and  financial  conditions  on  the  one  hand, 
and  the  requirements  of  Gothic  Architecture, 
as  interpreted  by  a  refined  and  almost  fas- 
tidious artist,  on  the  other. 

A  few  words  will  explain  «the  principles 
which  determined  the  kind  of  accommodation. 

For  the  illustration  of  Nature  the  student 
requires  four  things :  first,  the  work-room, 
where  he  may  practically  see  and  work  for 
himself ;  secondly,  the  lecture-room,  where 
he  may  see  and  be  taught  that  which  by 
himself  he  can  neither  see  nor  learn,  and,  as 


20          Construction  of  Central  Courf 

an  adjunct  to  these,  a  room  for  more  private 
study  for  each ;  thirdly,  general  space  for  the 
common  display  of  any  illustrative  specimens 
capable  of  preservation, — so  placed,  in  relation 
to  the  rest  of  the  building,  as  to  be  convenient 
for  reference  and  comparison  between  all  the 
different  branches ;  and,  lastly,  a  library,  in 
which  whatever  has  been  done,  or  is  now  doing, 
in  the  science  of  this  and  other  periods  and 
countries,  may  be  conveniently  ascertained. 

The  centre  of  the  edifice,  which  is  intended 
to  contain  the  Collections,  consists  of  a  quad- 
rangle. This  large  area  is  covered  by  a  glass 
roof,  supported  on  cast-iron  columns.  The 
ornaments  of  the  spandrels  (due  to  the 
admirable  skill  of  Mr.  Skid  more  of  Coventry) 
are  in  wrought-iron.  The  rigid  (cast)  material 
supports  the  vertical  pressure;  the  malleable 
(wrought)  iron  is  employed  for  the  ornament, 
and  is  chiefly  hand-wrought.  The  present  roof 
is  the  second  that  has  been  erected.  It  had 


Ironwork  21 

been  believed  that  a  departure  could  be  safely 
made  from  the  original  designs  of  Deane  and 
Woodward  for  the  sake  of  lightness  of  form ; 
and  that  for  the  same  reason  the  supports 
might  be  made  of  wrought-iron  tubes.  This 
experiment  failed,  and  a  structure  on  the 
general  principle  of  the  original  design  has 
replaced  the  attempt.  Some  persons  will 
probably  regret  that  when  the  new  roof  was 
erected,  it  was  hopeless  for  the  Architects  to 
propose,  as  they  would  have  wished,  the  sub- 
stitution of  stone  shafts,  few  in  number,  to 
support  the  roof.  A  step,  but  not  a  finalstep, 
has  been  made  towards  an  harmonious  union 
of  the  ironwork  of  the  nineteenth  century  with 
the  refined  architecture  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

The  wrought-iron  ornaments  represent,  in 
the  large  spandrels  that  occupy  the  inter- 
spaces between  the  arches  of  the  principal 
aisles,  large  interwoven  branches,  with  leaf 
and  flower  and  fruit,  of  lime,  chesnut, 


22          Arcades  of  the  Central  Court 

sycamore,  walnut,  palm,  and  other  trees  and 
shrubs,  of  native  or  of  exotic  growth;  and 
in  various  parts  of  the  lesser  decorations,  in 
the  capitals,  and  nestled  in  the  trefoils  of 
the  girders,  leaves  of  elm,  brier,  water-lily, 
passion-flower,  ivy,  holly,  and  many  others, 
which  hereafter  a  catalogue  will  enumerate. 

The  central  court  is  surrounded  by  an  open 
arcade  of  two  stories.  This  arcade  furnishes 
ready  means  of  communication  between  the 
several  departments  and  their  collections  in 
the  area.  The  roof  springs  from  above  the 
upper  arcade,  so  that  the  arcades  on  both 
floors  are  open  to  the  covered  court. 

The  arcade  on  the  ground-floor  is  entered 
from  the  centre  of  each  side  of  the  court,  and 
ready  communication  is  made  from  it  to  every 
part  of  the  collection.  In  each  of  the  arcades 
are  seven  piers  forming  eight  openings,  and 
carrying  eight  discharging  arches,  within  which 
are  two  lesser  arches,  resting  on  their  outer 


Arcades  of  the  Central  Court         23 

sides  on  the  piers,  and  at  their  junction  with 
each  other  on  a  shaft  with  a  capital  and  base. 

On  the  upper  story  there  is  a  similar 
arrangement,  excepting  only  that  the  piers 
and  shafts  are  of  less  height,  though  the 
piers  are  of  the  same  number ;  on  this  account, 
in  the  same  horizontal  space  between  each 
pier,  four  arches  are  supported  by  three  shafts 
in  the  upper  arcade,  instead  of  as  below,  two 
arches  supported  at  their  union  by  one  shaft. 

There  are,  on  the  ground-floor,  thirty- 
three  piers  and  thirty  shafts — on  the  upper 
floor,  thirty-three  piers  and  ninety-five  shafts. 
Thus  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  shafts 
surround  the  court ;  and  if  we  include  the 
capitals  and  bases  of  the  piers,  there  are  one 
hundred  and  ninety-one  capitals  and  bases1. 

The    shafts    have   been    carefully    selected, 

1  The  number  of  shafts  and  piers  on  the  side  by  which 
you  enter,  differs  from  the  other  three  sides  :  hence  the 
uneven  numbers. 


24    The  Shafts  are  Geological  Illustrations 

under  the  direction  of  the  Professor  of  Geology, 
from  quarries  which  furnish  examples  of  many 
of  the  most  important  rocks  of  the  British 
Islands.  On  the  lower  arcade  are  placed,  on  the 
west  side,  the  granitic  series ;  on  the  east,  the 
metamorphic ;  on  the  north,  calcareous  rocks, 
chiefly  from  Ireland  ;  on  the  south,  the  marbles 
of  England.  In  the  upper  floor,  as  far  as  may 
be,  an  analogous  distribution  is  adopted1. 

In  a  table  which  follows,  the  kind  of  rocks, 
their  localities,  and  the  carvings  which  accom- 
pany them,  are  noticed.  The  visitor  having 
completed  the  circuit  of  the  ground-floor,  may 
ascend  by  the  south  staircase  to  the  upper  floor, 
and  pass  round  to  the  right,  examining  the 
columns  from  the  south-west  angle, — that  which 
he  meets  at  the  head  of  the  southern  stairs. 

1  Further  particulars  of  these  shafts,  and  of  the 
arrangements  of  the  plants  represented  in  the  capitals, 
are  given  in  an  admirable  letter  for  which  I  am  indebted 
to  Professor  PHILLIPS.  See  p.  91.  For  the  statues  already 
erected  see  p.  102. 


Sculptures  of  Animals  and  Plants     25 

The  capitals  and  bases  represent  various 
groups  of  plants  and  animals,  illustrating 
different  climates  and  various  epochs.  They 
are  mainly  arranged  according  to  their  natural 
orders,  and  are  the  more  required  to  repre- 
sent the  vegetable  creation,  as  the  botanical 
collections  will  remain,  very  prooerly,  at  the 
Botanical  Gardens. 

On  massive  corbels,  projecting  from  the 
fronts  of  the  piers,  there  are  placed  the  statues 
of  great  men  who  first  discovered,  or  first 
brought  to  important  results,  the  several 
branches  of  knowledge  which  the  edifice  is 
intended  to  promote.  As  those  who  have  laid 
the  deepest  and  widest  the  foundations  of 
science,  Aristotle  and  Bacon  are  set  up  at  the 
portal, — the  one  given  by  Her  Majesty  the 
Queen,  the  other  by  Undergraduates  of  Oxford. 
In  the  mathematical  department  is  placed 
Leibnitz;  in  the  astronomical,  Newton,  Gali- 
leo ;  in  that  of  physics,  Oersted ;  in  the 


26  Statues  of  Great  Discoverers 

chemical,  Davy,  Priestley;  in  that  of  zoology 
and  botany,  Linnaeus ;  in  that  of  medicine, 
Hippocrates,  Harvey;  in  that  of  applied 
mechanics,  Watt.  These  all  are  already  set 
here  for  the  contemplation  and  example  of  all 
who  may  hereafter  enter,  with  various  purpose, 
this  place  of  study  and  of  work. 

But  the  history  of  Science  even  by  its  most 
conspicuous  landmarks  is  not  to  be  sketched 
without  many  more  names  than  these.  We 
desire  to  set  before  the  visitor  the  statue  of 
Descartes ;  to  recall  to  all  comers  the  memory 
of  Euclid  and  Lagrange  among  mathema- 
ticians ;  of  Hipparchus  and  Kepler  among 
astronomers ;  of  Archimedes,  Roger  Bacon, 
Robert  Boyle,  Franklin,  Young,  among  physic- 
ists; of  Lavoisier  and  Stahl  among  chemists; 
of  Hutton  and  Werner  among  geologists ;  of 
Ray,  Jussieu,  and  Humboldt  among  zoologists 
and  botanists ;  of  Hunter  and  Haller,  of 
Sydenham  and  Harvey  among  those  who  have 


Her  Majesty's  Gifts  27 

most  advanced  physiology  and  medicine;  of 
George  Stephenson,  who  added  railways  to  the 
practical  mechanics  of  the  world. 

Here  I  must  not  omit  to  record  that  the  ex- 
pression in  the  architecture,  by  this  simple  and 
happy  method,  of  the  intentions  of  the  build- 
ing, was  engrafted  upon  it  as  the  work  went 
on,  and  was  not  (I  need  hardly  say)  included  in 
the  first  design,  or  in  the  original  estimate.  All 
this  has  since  been  added  by  the  zealous  muni- 
ficence of  many  friends  of  our  undertaking. 

I  may  be  excused  for  here  repeating  a  public 
fact.  Her  Majesty  QUEEN  VICTORIA  was  made 
acquainted  with  the  circumstance  that  these 
statues  could  be  erected  only  by  private  gift : 
a  hope  was  expressed  that  if  Her  Majesty 
thought  fit  to  set  an  example  to  contributors, 
she  would  choose  as  her  donation  the  first  of 
the  great  school  of  modern  science,  himself 
an  Englishman,  Francis  Lord  Bacon.  In 
reply,  the  royal,  and,  more  also,  the  kindly 


28  Her  Majesty's  Gifts 

announcement  reached  the  University,  that 
not  Bacon  only,  but  the  four  great  names  that 
followed  next  on  the  proposed  list  of  dis- 
coverers, should  be  executed  by  Her  Majesty's 
command  and  at  her  own  costs.  And  I  know 
not  but  that  this  gracious  act  was  enhanced 
in  value,  when  it  was  made  known  by  the 
Chancellor  on  the  same  occasion  on  which 
the  Queen's  gift  was  publicly  announced,  that 
the  Undergraduates  had  offered  to  erect  the 
monuments  to  Aristotle  and  Cuvier. 

They  who  desire  to  examine  in  detail  the 
shafts  and  the  illustrative  carvings,  should 
proceed  from  the  entrance  to  the  right,  as  far 
as  the  angle,  and  then  return  to  the  north- 
ward. They  will  thus  follow  the  Rocks  as 
Professor  Phillips  has  placed  them,  and  will 
have  the  names  of  the  Plants  which  have 
been  represented  in  natural  groups,  more 
or  less  idealized,  or  literally  copied,  by  the 
workmen. 


Lower  Corridor,  West  and  North  Sides  29 


LOWER  ARCADE, 

(West  side,  going  North). 


SHAFTS. 


Gray  granite,  Aber- 
deen. 

Red  granite,  Peter- 
head. 

Porphyritic  gray 
granite,  from  La- 
morna  (Corn  wall) . 

Syenite,  from  Cham- 
wood  Forest. 

Mottled  granite  of 
Cruachan. 

Red  granite  of  Ross 
in  Mull. 


CAPITALS  AND  CORBELS. 

The  corbels  marked  c. 
c.  Sagittaria  sagittifolia. 
'  AlismacecB     Alisma  Plantago. 

c.  Alisma  ranunculoides. 
I  c.  Limnocharis. 

Butomacece  <  Butomus  umbellatus. 
(  c.  Limnocharis. 
(  c.  Fan-palm. 
Palmacece  <  Date-palm. 
(  c.  Fan- palm. 

!c.  Phoenix. 
Cocoa-palm. 
C.  Caryota. 
!c.  Tradescantia. 
Colchicum  and  Pontederia. 
c.  Dracaena, 
c.  Yucca. 

Lillacece     Lilium,  Tulipa,  Fritillaria. 
c.  Aloe. 


LOWER  ARCADE  (North  side,  going  East). 


Devonian  lime- 
stone, from  Tor- 
quay. 

Mountainlimestone, 
Cork. 

Mountainlimestone, 
King's  County. 

Green  serpentine, 
Galway. 


(  c.  Sagittaria. 

Pandanacece  <  Pandanus  (screw-pine). 
(  c.  Cyclamen. 
(  c.  Typha. 

Typhacece  <  Sparganium  ramosum. 
(  c.  Typha. 
(  c.  Arum,  Pothos. 
Aracece  <  Dracunculus  vulgaris, 
(  0.  Caladium. 
(  c.  Pothos. 

Acoracece  <  Calla  u3Ethiopica. 
(  c.  Orontium. 


E 


30          The  Lower  Corridor,  East  Side 


SHAFTS. 

Green      serpentine, 
Galway. 


Mountain  limestone, 
co.  Limerick. 


Mountain  limestone, 
Cork. 


Devonian  limestone, 
St.  Mary  Church. 


CAPITALS  AND  CORBELS. 
The  corbels  marked  c. 
(  c.  Papyrus. 

Cyperacece  <  Cyperus  rigidus. 
(  c.  Cladium. 
f  c.  Bronms. 

I  Wheat,   barley,    oats,    In- 
dian   corn,    and    sugar- 
cane  (with  sparrows). 
C.  Rice   and   canary-grass, 
with  buntings,  canaries, 
and  quails. 
C.  Platycerium. 
Acrostichum  aureum. 
C.  Adiantum. 
f  c.  Hart's  tongue,   Lastraea 

cristata. 

J  Ferus,  Scolopendrium  vul- 
1      gare,  Bleclmum  boreale, 

Lastrsea,  Filix  mas. 
[  c.  Mallow. 


G-raminece  \ 


Filices 


LOWER  ARCADE  (East  side,  going  South). 


Trap   rock,    Killer- 
ton,  Devon. 

Elvan  rock  of  Tre- 
rice. 

Schorlaceous     rock, 
Roche. 

Serpentine     (Corn- 
wall). 

Serpentine      (Corn- 
wall). 


c.  Cycas  revoluta. 
Zamiacece     Dion  edule. 

c.  Cycas  revoluta. 
(  C.  Encephalartos. 
Zamiacece  <  Zamia  horrida. 

(  c.  Encephalartos. 

!c.  Wellingtonia. 
Thuja  siberica. 
C.  Sequoia  sempervirens. 
!c.  Stone-pine. 
Abies  excelsa. 
c.  Cluster-pine. 
ic.  Araucaria  Cunninghami , 
Araucaria  imbricata. 
c.  Araucaria  Braziliensis. 


The  Lower  Corridor,  South  Side         31 


SHAFTS. 
Porphyry,  Inverara. 

Schorlaceous  por- 
phyritic  rock,  St. 
Leven's. 

Black  serpentine 
(Lizard). 


CAPITALS  AND  CORBELS, 
The  corbels  marked  c, 
(  C.  Dacrydium. 
Taxacece  j  Taxus  baccata. 
(  C.  Salisburia. 
(  o.  Smilax  aspera. 
Smilacece  <  Smilax  sarsaparilla. 

(  c.  Smilax  pseudochina. 

!c.  Small-leaved  bryony. 
Black  bryony  (tamus). 
c.  Elephant's  foot. 


LOWEK  AECADE  (South  side,  going  West). 


Gypsum,      Chellas- 
ton. 


Mountain  limestone, 
Mona. 

Mountain  limestone, 
Frosterley. 


OrcMdacece 


C.  Epidendron  cochleatum  ? 
Dendrobium  calceolaria, 
c.  Cypripedium         (lady's 
slipper). 


Musacece  <  Musa. 

(  c.  Strelitzia. 

c.  Maranta  bicolor. 
Marantacece     Maranta. 

c.  Heliconia. 


Breccia,  Mendip. 

1 

Zingiberacece  \  Alpinia  nutans. 

Green      serpentine, 

[  0.  Broad-leaved  ginger. 
(  c. 

Mona  or  Angle- 

Iridacece  <  Iris  germanica. 

sea. 

(  0.  Gladiolus. 

Mountainlimestone, 
Hotwells,  Bristol. 

Amarylli- 
dacece 

I  c.  Narcissus  macleagii. 
Narcissus  pseudonarcissus. 

.  c.  Narcissus  aurantiaca. 

Mountain  limestone 
ofGarsdale,York- 
shire. 

Amarylli-  (  a  Vallota  purpurea. 
dacece     i  Amaryllis  Johnsoni. 
f  c.  Leucoium. 

Mountain  limestone 
of    Dent,    York- 

Eromeliacece 

C.  Pine-apple. 

Ananassa  sativa. 

shire. 

C.  Lilium  lancifolium. 

E  2 

32    Upper  Corridor,  West  and  North  Sides 


UPPER  ARCADE, 

(West  side,  going  North). 


Augitic   porphyry,   Aberdeen- 
shire. 

Ked  granite,  Peterhead. 
Gray  granite,  Aberdeen. 
Porphyry,  Scotland. 
Schorl  rock,  Cornwall. 
Porphyry,  Scotland. 
Serpentine,  Lizard. 
Granite,  Lamorna. 
Serpentine,  Lizard. 
Schorlaceous  rock,  Cornwall. 
Granite,  St.  Just. 


Schorlaceous  rock,  Cornwall. 

Granite,  Cornwall. 

Porphyritic  granite,  Cornwall. 

Serpentine. 

Porphyritic  granite,  Cornwall. 

Serpentine. 

Granite,  Carnmoor,  Cornwall. 

Ditto. 

Ditto. 

Porphyry,  Loch  Tay. 

Elvan,  Cornwall. 

Schorlaceous  granite,  Cornwall. 


UPPEK  ARCADE  (North  side,  going  East). 


From  Armagh. 

„     Kilkenny. 

,,     Armagh. 

„     Clonony. 

„     Cork. 

Green  serpentine,  Connemara. 
From  Donegal. 
Green  serpentine,  Connemara. 

From  Cork. 
„     Donegal. 
,     Cork. 


From  Armagh. 

„  Kilkenny. 

„  Armagh. 

„  Connemara. 

„  Galway. 

„  Connemara. 

„  Armagh. 

,,  Tullamore. 

„  Tullamore. 

,  Tullamore. 


Upper  Corridor,  East  and  South  Sides    33 


UPPER  ARCADE  (East  side,  going  South). 


From  Mansfield.  \ 

„      Mansfield.  >  Permian. 

„      Mansfield.  » 

,,      Portland. 

„     Stamford.  Oolite. 

„      Buckingham. 
Slate.  , 

Slate.  [  Wales. 
Slate.  ) 

Granite,  from  Jersey. 
Ditto. 
Ditto. 


Galloway  granite. 
Cornish  granite. 
Galloway  granite. 
Oolite,  from  Ketton. 
Blue  lias. 
White  lias. 
Purbeck  marble. 
Ditto. 

Purbeck  marble. 
Chellaston,  gypsum. 
From  Mendip,  breccia. 
„     Anston,  dolomite. 


UPPER  ARCADE  (South  side,  going  West). 
SHAFTS. 


From  Torquay. 
Mountain  limestone1. 
From  Mary  Church. 

,,     South  Wales. 

„     Menai . 

„     South  Wales. 

„     Mona. 

Mountain  limestone. 
From  Mona. 

„     Derbyshire. 

,,     Derbyshire. 

„     Menai. 

„     Derbyshire. 


From  Menai,  black. 

„  Menai. 

„  Frosterley,  Durham. 

,,  Plymouth. 

„  Chudleigh. 

„  Totness. 

„  Dent,  Yorkshire. 

„  Garsdale,  Yorkshire. 

„  Bristol. 

„  Torquay. 

,,  Oreton,  Salop. 

„  Mary  Church,  Devon. 


The  locality  is  not  known. 


34  Words  on  the  Walls 

Several  offers  have  been  made  to  place  in- 
scriptions in  carving  or  in  colour  on  the  walls 
of  the  corridors,  in  the  libraries,  or  in  the 
several  departments.  How  curiously  instruc- 
tive some  of  these  might  be !  Take  two  for 
example,  in  the  Medical  Department — this, 
quaint  saying  and  pregnant  rebuke  recorded 
by  Stobaeus : 

"  Tp6(pi\os  larpos  epanTjOeis,  TLS  av  yei/oiro  re'Xeios  larpos' 
'O  TO.  Sward,  ^(prj,  KCU  TO.  p,fj  dvvara  Swdpfvos  diayiyvdxTKfiv." 

'  Trophilus  the  physician  being  asked  who  is  a  per- 
fect physician,  gave  answer,  "He  who  distinguishes 
between  what  can,  and  what  cannot  be  done  ".' 

Then  the  weighty,  but  half-known  words 
with  which  Hippocrates  solemnly  begins  his 
instructions — 

"  CO  /3i'or  ftpaxvs,  f)  8e  re^vr]  paicpr),  6  Se  Kaipos  o£vs,  f]  8e 
nelpa  <r(paXepr),  f)  dc  Kpiats  xaXfTrq." 

'  Life  is  short ; 

but 

Art  long  ; 

Opportunities  fleeting; 
Experience  deceitful; 
True  judgement  difficult.' 


Words  on  the  Walls  35 

Or  the  saying  of  Sir  Thomas  Browne — 
'NATURE  is  the  ART  of  GOD.' 

Shall  we  add,  with  perhaps  new  signifi- 
cance,— 

'  Ipsi  peribunt,  Tu  autem  permanes  :  et  omnes  sicut 
vestimentum  veterascent.' 

Great  hopes  are  entertained  that  means  will 
be  obtained  for  painting  in  fresco  the  brick 
spandrels  now  left  bare  for  this  purpose  in  the 
area ;  and  that  then,  in  subordinated  harmony 
to  the  general  effect,  the  colouring  of  the  iron- 
work may  be  attempted,  and  the  present 
temporary  greys  rectified.  Many  of  the  rooms 
are  already  coloured,  and  serve  as  an  illus- 
tration of  cheap  and  simple,  yet  artistic 
decoration.  One  room  has  been  illustrated  by 
a  large  geological  painting  of  the  Mer  de 
Glace,  and  by  one  of  the  lava  streams  of 
Vesuvius;  these  are  due  to  the  leisure  hours 
of  a  parochial  clergyman,  the  Rev.  R.  St.  John 


36  The  several  Departments 

Tyrwhitt.  Ample  wall-space  awaits  similar 
industry,  and,  we  will  hope,  as  successful 
effort. 

Round  the  arcade  is  ranged  upon  three  sides 
the  main  block  of  the  building.  The  east  is 
wisely  left  unencumbered  by  rooms,  to  afford 
ready  means  for  future  extension :  land  has  been 
purchased,  which  will  admit  of  such  extension 
whenever  it  is  required.  I  may  not  describe 
the  main  block  in  detail;  you  can  visit  such 
departments  as  you  think  fit.  The  most  com- 
plete and  largest  is  that  of  Chemistry,  because 
the  practical  work  of  that  extensive  subject  is 
likely  to  be  here  most  extensively  carried  on. 
To  every  department  is  attached  a  lecture- 
room,  a  private  room,  and,  wherever  required, 
work-rooms  and  laboratories. 

The  order  in  which  the  departments  are 
reached  is — on  the  right  of  the  entrance  the 
department  of  Chemistry ;  on  the  south  side, 
first  the  Physical,  next  the  Mineralogical  and 


Contents  of  the  Area  37 

Geological  rooms;  to  the  left  of  the  entrance 
the  rooms  devoted  to  Medicine;  on  the  north 
the  rooms  for  the  Delegates  and  the  Keeper, 
and  the  Physiological  establishment. 

The  Area  itself  will  contain  the  typical 
illustrations  for  study,  viz.  in  the  South  Aisle, 
such  as  may  be  thought  proper  for  display  by 
the  Professors  of  Mathematics,  Astronomy,, 
and  Physics.  Mineralogical  specimens  and 
Chemical  substances  will  also  be  arranged  in 
this  quarter. 

The  great  Central  Aisle  will  show  Palaeon- 
tological  collections ;  and  we  of  Oxford  may 
hope  the  memory  of  BUCKLAND  will  long 
cling  to  the  treasures  his  energy  collected 
and  his  genius  illuminated. 

The  remaining  space  to  the  North  will  be 
devoted  to  the  Ashmolean  collections  in 
Zoology,  and  to  the  Physiological  series 
which  the  enlightened  liberality  of  Dean 
Liddell  and  the  Chapter  of  Christ  Church 


38      Lecture-rooms,  Laboratories, 

have  allowed  to  be  removed  thither  for  the 
public  convenience  and  instruction. 

Beyond  or  outside  the  main  block,  to  the 
north,  because  the  coolest  side,  are  the  Ana- 
tomical and  Zoological  departments,  with  an 
open  yard,  and  beyond  it,  Dissecting-rooms. 
On  the  south  side,  are  the  rooms  which  require 
special  arrangements  for  experiments  on  light ; 
a  yard  for  purposes  connected  with  Chemistry 
and  Experimental  Physics;  and  further  still, 
out-buildings,  containing  workshops,  furnace- 
rooms,  balance-rooms,  and  laboratories.  Thus 
all  noxious  operations  are  removed  from  the 
principal  pile,  but  joined  with  much  con- 
venience to  the  lecture-rooms,  and  communi- 
cating easily  with  the  Central  Court,  common 
to  all  the  departments. 

The  laboratory  for  the  chemical  students  is 
the  large  detached  building  seen  at  the  south- 
west angle  of  the  Museum.  The  Abbot's  kitchen 
at  Glastonbury  will  be  recognised  by  you  as  the 


The  Library  39 

prototype.  There  can  be  no  more  successful 
adaptation  of  an  ancient  example  to  modern 
wants,  inasmuch  as  no  more  convenient  nor 
more  airy  laboratory  could  be  contrived,  and 
certainly  no  bolder  or  more  picturesque  design. 

On  the  upper  floor  are  a  large  lecture-room 
for  500  persons  intended  for  occasional  use, 
furnished  with  gas  and  ample  water  supply, 
with  efficient  drainage,  for  experiments;  the 
rooms  for  the  Astronomical  and  Mathemetical 
Professors,  and  the  Entomological  collections  of 
Mr.  Hope ;  and  along  the  front,  the  Library  and 
Reading-rooms,  together  200  feet  in  length. 

Concerning  the  libraries,  to  the  honour  of 
the  Radcliffe  Trustees  (the  Earl  Bathurst, 
W.  S.  Dugdale,  Esq.,  the  Right  Hon.  S. 
Herbert,  the  Right  Hon.  W.  E.  Gladstone, 
and  the  Right  Hon.  T.  H.  Sotheron  Estcourt), 
it  must  be  said,  that  they  have  seriously  before 
them  the  question  whether  they  may  not 
transfer  their  collections  of  Scientific  Books  to 


40  The  Library 

the  new  Scientific  Institution.  Here  is  not  the 
place  to  enter  into  the  arguments  which  are 
involved  in  the  proposition;  it  is  sufficient  to 
say,  that  close  by  the  Scientific  Collections, 
some  library  of  Scientific  Literature  is  neces- 
sary. Wherever  the  Collections  are,  the  students 
will  be.  The  memory  of  the  great  physician 
will  be  doubly  honoured,  should  the  noble  pile 
that  bears  his  name,  bear  it  still  as  the  Radcliffe 
Library ;  but,  marching  as  it  were  with  the 
new  wants  of  a  new  age,  it  may  supply 
a  splendid  reading-room  to  the  over-crowded 
Bodleian  Library,  afford  space  for  the  display 
and  protection  of  rare  manuscripts,  and  of 
Mr.  Hope's  great  collection  of  historical  engrav- 
ings ;  while  his  funds  and  his  literary  stores 
begin  a  new  scientific  life  at  the  Museum.  The 
Trustees  will  not  probably  be  foiled  in  their 
endeavour  to  serve  the  best  interests,  both  of 
their  founders  and  of  the  University.  Should 
they  be  so,  however,  there  will  be  long  and 


The  Curator's  Residence  41 

costly  labour  before  those  who  use  the  Museum 
will  be  supplied  with  such  a  collection  of 
illustrated  works  on  all  scientific  subjects,  of 
periodicals,  and  transactions  ;  or  endowed  with 
so  liberal  funds  for  the  maintenance  of  a  library. 

Lastly,  I  will  but  mention  the  graceful 
building  which  at  the  south-east  angle  gives 
a  residence  to  the  Curator.  The  elegance  of  its 
form,  and  the  beauty  of  its  many  details,  will 
long  tell  the  tale,  that  the  soul  of  its  architect 
yearned  after  the  subtler  refinements  of 
Gothic  Art;  and  will  say,  in  unmistakable 
terms,  what  that  man  might  have  accom- 
plished, had  ample  means  been  ever  placed 
at  his  command. 

Here,  then,  I  must  stop, — but  not  before 
I  have  added,  that  while  this  building  has  been 
in  progress,  we  have  not  been  wholly  un- 
mindful of  the  hardy  hands  that  worked  for 
its  erection.  Alas !  we  can  do  little  for  each 
other,  to  ease  the  daily  toil,  and  sweeten  the 


42  Designs  by  the  Workmen 

hard-earned  bread.  But  with  the  laying  the 
foundation-stone  we  also  erected  a  humble  mess- 
room  by  its  side,  where  the  workmen  have  daily 
met  for  their  stated  meals,  have  begun  each  day 
with  simple  prayers  from  willing  hearts,  have 
had  various  volumes  placed  for  their  use,  and 
have  received  frequent  instruction  and  aid  from 
the  chief  officer  in  the  building,  Mr.  Bramwell, 
our  clerk  of  the  works. 

The  temper  of  the  Architect  has  reached 
the  men.  In  their  work  they  have  had 
pleasure.  The  capitals  are  partly  designed 
by  the  men  themselves,  and  especially  by  the 
family  of  O'Shea,  who  bring  wit  and  alacrity 
from  the  Emerald  Isle  to  their  cheerful  task. 
The  carving  of  the  capitals  and  the  decoration 
of  the  windows,  limited,  very  limited,  as  our 
means  have  been,  have  raised  ever  living  in- 
terest ;  and  as  strangers  walk  in  the  streets, 
ever  and  anon  they  hear  the  theme  discussed 
by  the  workers  who  pass  by. 


Mr.  Ruskin's  Letter  43 

May  the  work  prosper ! — and  in  many 
succeeding  generations,  when  we  are  long 
forgotten,  may  young  minds  be  here  freshly 
learning  and  warmly  loving  the  things  which 
they  may  be  allowed  to  perceive  as  in  a  mirror, 
dimly;  but  which  we,  by  the  ineffable  grace 
of  God,  may,  in  ways  at  present  unconceived, 
be  then  beholding,  and  knowing  them  then  as 
they  are  known. 


I  have  purposely  avoided  the  expression  of 
my  sentiments  on  many  points  which  interest 
me,  lest  I  be,  as  perhaps  I  already  am,  tedious 
to  you.  I  delay,  therefore,  no  longer  to  read 
a  letter  which  has  just  reached  me  from 
Mr.  Ruskin. 


ACLAND, 

'  I  have  been  very  anxious,  since  I 
last  heard  from  you,  respecting  the  progress 
of  the  works  at  the  Museum,  as  I  thought 


44  Mr.  Ruskin's  Letter 

I  could  trace  in  your  expressions  some  doubt 
of  an  entirely  satisfactory  issue. 

'Entirely  satisfactory  very  few  issues  are 
or  can  be;  and  when  the  enterprise,  as  in 
this  instance,  involves  the  development  of 
many  new  and  progressive  principles,  we 
must  always  be  prepared  for  a  due  measure 
of  disappointment — due  partly  to  human 
weakness,  and  partly  to  what  the  ancients 
would  have  called  fate — and  we  may,  perhaps, 
most  wisely  call  the  law  of  trial,  which  forbids 
any  great  good  being  usually  accomplished 
without  various  compensations  and  deductions, 
probably  not  a  little  humiliating. 

'  Perhaps  in  writing  to  you  what  seems  to 
me  to  be  the  bearing  of  matters  respecting 
your  Museum,  I  may  be  answering  a  few  of  the 
doubts  of  others,  as  well  as  fears  of  your  own. 

6 1  am  quite  sure  that  when  you  first  used 
your  influence  to  advocate  the  claims  of  a 
Gothic  design,  you  did  so  under  the  conviction, 


Decoration  difficult  45 

shared  by  all  the  seriously  purposed  defenders 
of  the  Gothic  style,  that  the  essence  and  power 
of  Gothic,  properly  so  called,  lay  in  its  adapt- 
ability to  all  need ;  in  that  perfect  and  unlimited 
flexibility  which  would  enable  the  architect  to 
provide  all  that  was  required,  in  the  simplest 
and  most  convenient  way ;  and  to  give  you  the 
best  offices,  the  best  lecture-rooms,  laboratories, 
and  museums,  which  could  be  provided  with  the 
sum  of  money  at  his  disposal. 

fSo  far  as  the  architect  has  failed  in  doing 
this ;  so  far  as  you  find  yourself,  with  the 
other  professors,  in  anywise  inconvenienced 
by  forms  of  architecture;  so  far  as  pillars  or 
piers  come  in  your  way,  when  you  have  to 
point,  or  vaults  in  the  way  of  your  voice, 
when  you  have  to  speak,  or  mullions  in  the 
way  of  your  light,  when  you  want  to  see; — 
just  so  far  the  architect  has  failed  in  ex- 
pressing his  own  principles,  or  those  of  pure 
Gothic  art.  I  do  not  suppose  that  such 
F 


46  Mr.  Ruskin's  Letter 

failure  has  taken  place  to  any  considerable 
extent ;  but  so  far  as  it  has  taken  place,  it 
cannot  in  justice  be  laid  to  the  score  of  the 
style,  since  precedent  has  shown  sufficiently, 
that  very  uncomfortable  and  useless  rooms 
may  be  provided  in  all  other  styles  as  well 
as  in  Gothic ;  and  I  think  if,  in  a  building 
arranged  for  many  objects  of  various  kinds, 
at  a  time  when  the  practice  of  architecture 
has  been  somewhat  confused  by  the  inven- 
tions of  modern  science,  and  is  hardly  yet 
organized  completely  with  respect  to  the 
new  means  at  its  disposal ;  if,  under  such 
circumstances,  and  with  somewhat  limited 
funds,  you  have  yet  obtained  a  building  in  all 
main  points  properly  fulfilling  its  requirements, 
you  have,  I  think,  as  much  as  could  be  hoped 
from  the  adoption  of  any  style  whatsoever. 

*But  I  am  much  more  anxious  about  the 
decoration  of  the  building;  for  I  fear  that  it 
will  be  hurried  in  completion,  and  that, 


Principles  of  Decoration  47 

partly  in  haste  and  partly  in  mistimed 
economy,  a  great  opportunity  may  be  lost 
of  advancing  the  best  interest  of  architec- 
tural, and  in  that,  of  all  other  arts.  For 
the  principles  of  Gothic  decoration,  in  them- 
selves as  simple  and  beautiful  as  those  of 
Gothic  construction,  are  far  less  understood, 
as  yet,  by  the  English  public,  and  it  is  little 
likely  that  any  effective  measures  can  be 
taken  to  carry  them  out.  You  know,  as 
well  as  I,  what  those  principles  are;  yet  it 
may  be  convenient  to  you  that  I  should  here 
state  them  briefly  as  I  accept  them  myself,  and 
have  reason  to  suppose  they  are  accepted  by 
the  principal  promoters  of  the  Gothic  revival. 

CI.  The  first  principle  of  Gothic  decoration 
is  that  a  given  quantity  of  good  art  will  be 
more  generally  useful  when  exhibited  on  a 
large  scale,  and  forming  part  of  a  connected 
system,  than  when  it  is  small  and  separated. 
That  is  to  say,  a  piece  of  sculpture  or 
F  2 


48  .     Mr.  Raskin's  Letter 

painting  of  a  certain  allowed  merit,  will  be 
more  useful  when  seen  on  the  front  of  a 
building,  or  at  the  end  of  a  room,,  and,  there- 
fore, by  many  persons,  than  if  it  be  so  small 
as  to  be  only  capable  of  being  seen  by  one 
or  two  at  a  time ;  and  it  will  be  more  useful 
when  so  combined  with  other  work  as  to 
produce  that  kind  of  impression  usually  termed 
" sublime" — as  it  is  felt  on  looking  at  any 
great  series  of  fixed  paintings,  or  at  the  front 
of  a  cathedral — than  if  it  be  so  separated  as 
to  excite  only  a  special  wonder  or  admiration, 
such  as  we  feel  for  a  jewel  in  a  cabinet. 

'The  paintings  by  Meissonier  in  the 
French  Exhibition  of  this  year  were  bought, 
I  believe,  before  the  Exhibition  opened,  for 
250  guineas  each.  They  each  represented  one 
figure,  about  six  inches  high — one,  a  student 
reading ;  the  other,  a  courtier  standing  in 
a  dress-coat.  Neither  of  these  paintings 
conveyed  any  information,  or  produced  any 


Principles  of  Decoration  49 

emotion  whatever,  except  that  of  surprise 
at  their  minute  and  dextrous  execution. 
They  will  be  placed  by  their  possessors  on 
the  walls  of  small  private  apartments,  where 
they  will  probably,  once  or  twice  a  week, 
form  the  subject  of  five  minutes5  conversation 
while  people  drink  their  coffee  after  dinner. 
The  sum  expended  on  these  toys  would  have 
been  amply  sufficient  to  cover  a  large  building 
with  noble  frescoes,  appealing  to  every  passer 
by,  and  representing  a  large  portion  of  the 
history  of  any  given  period.  But  the  general 
tendency  of  the  European  patrons  of  art  is  to 
grudge  all  sums  spent  in  a  way  thus  calcu- 
lated to  confer  benefit  on  the  public,  and  to 
grudge  none  for  minute  treasures,  of  which  the 
principal  advantage  is  that  a  lock  and  key  can 
always  render  them  invisible. 

fl  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  an 
acquisitive  selfishness,  rejoicing  somewhat 
even  in  the  sensation  of  possessing  what  can 


50  Mr.  Ruskin's  Letter 

NOT  be  seen  by  others,  is  at  the  root  of  this 
art-patronage.  It  is,  of  course,  coupled  with 
a  sense  of  securer  and  more  convenient  invest- 
ment in  what  may  be  easily  protected  and  easily 
carried  from  place  to  place,  than  in  large  and 
immoveable  works ;  and  also  with  a  vulgar  de- 
light in  the  minute  curiosities  of  productive  art, 
rather  than  in  the  exercise  of  inventive  genius, 
or  the  expression  of  great  facts  or  emotions. 

'The  first  aim  of  the  Gothic  Revivalists  is 
to  counteract,  as  far  as  possible,  this  feeling  on 
all  its  three  grounds.  We  desire  (A)  to  make 
art  large  and  publicly  beneficial,  instead  of  small 
and  privately  engrossed  or  secluded ;  (B)  to 
make  art  fixed  instead  of  portable,  associating 
it  with  local  character  and  historical  memory ; 
(C)  to  make  art  expressive  instead  of  curious, 
valuable  for  its  suggestions  and  teachings,  more 
than  for  the  mode  of  its  manufacture. 

6 II.  The  second  great  principle  of  the  Gothic 
Revivalists  is  that  all  art  employed  in  decora- 


Gothic  Revivalists  51 

tion  should  be  informative,  conveying  truthful 
statements  about  natural  facts,  if  it  conveys  any 
statement.  It  may  sometimes  merely  compose 
its  decorations  of  mosaics,  chequers,  bosses, 
or  other  meaningless  ornaments ;  but  if  it 
represents  organic  form  (and  in  all  important 
places  it  will  represent  it),  it  will  give  that 
form  truthfully,  with  as  much  resemblance  to 
nature  as  the  necessary  treatment  of  the  piece 
of  ornament  in  question  will  admit  of. 

'This  principle  is  more  disputed  than  the 
first  among  the  Gothic  Revivalists  themselves. 
I,  however,  hold  it  simply  and  entirely, 
believing  that  ornamentation  is  always, 
caeteris  paribus,  most  valuable  and  beautiful 
when  it  is  founded  on  the  most  extended 
knowledge  of  natural  forms,  and  continually 
conveys  such  knowledge  to  the  spectator1. 

CIII.  The    third     great    principle    of     the 

1  A  more  detailed  statement  of  this  principle  is  given 
in  a  following  letter. 


52  Mr.  Ruskin's  Letter 

Gothic  revival  is  that  all  architectural 
ornamentation  should  be  executed  by  the 
men  who  design  it,  and  should  be  of  various 
degrees  of  excellence,  admitting,  and  there- 
fore exciting,  the  intelligent  co-operation  of 
various  classes  of  workmen ;  and  that  a 
great  public  edifice  should  be,  in  sculpture 
and  painting,  somewhat  the  same  as  a  great 
chorus  in  music,  in  which,  while,  perhaps, 
there  may  be  only  one  or  two  voices 
perfectly  trained,  and  of  perfect  sweetness 
(the  rest  being  in  various  degrees  weaker 
and  less  cultivated),  yet  all  being  ruled  in 
harmony,  and  each  sustaining  a  part  con- 
sistent with  its  strength,  the  body  of  sound 
is  sublime,  in  spite  of  individual  weaknesses. 
'The  Museum  at  Oxford  was,  I  know, 
intended  by  its  designer  to  exhibit  in  its  de- 
coration the  working  of  these  three  principles ; 
but  in  the  very  fact  of  its  doing  so,  it  becomes 
exposed  to  chances  of  occasional  failure,  or 


Three  Principles  illustrated  53 

even  to  serious  discomfitures,  such  as  would  not 
at  all  have  attended  the  adoption  of  an  estab- 
lished mode  of  modern  work.  It  is  easy  to  carve 
capitals  on  models  known  for  four  thousand 
years,  and  impossible  to  fail  in  the  application 
of  mechanical  methods  and  formalized  rules. 
But  it  is  not  possible  to  appeal  vigorously  to 
new  canons  of  judgement  without  the  chance  of 
giving  offence  ;  nor  to  summon  into  service  the 
various  phases  of  human  temper  and  intelli- 
gence, without  occasionally  finding  the  tempers 
rough  and  the  intelligence  feeble.  The  Oxford 
Museum  is,  I  believe,  the  first  building  in  this 
country  which  has  had  its  ornamentation,  in 
any  telling  parts,  trusted  to  the  invention  of 
the  workman :  the  result  is  highly  satisfac- 
tory, the  projecting  windows  of  the  staircases 
being  as  beautiful  in  effect  as  anything  I  know 
in  civil  Gothic :  but  far  more  may  be  accom- 
plished for  the  building  if  the  completion  'of 
its  carving  be  not  hastened.  Many  men  of 


54  Mr.  Ruskin's  Letter 

high  artistic  power  might  be  brought  to  take 
an  interest  in  it,  and  various  lessons  and 
suggestions  given  to  the  workmen  which 
would  materially  advantage  the  final  decora- 
tion of  leading  features.  No  very  great 
Gothic  building,  so  far  as  I  know,  was  ever 
yet  completed  without  some  of  this  wise 
deliberation  and  fruitful  patience. 

( I  wras  in  hopes  from  the  beginning  that  the 
sculpture  might  have  been  rendered  typically 
illustrative  of  the  English  Flora :  how  far  this 
idea  has  been  as  yet  carried  out  I  do  not  know ; 
but  I  know  that  it  cannot  be  properly  carried 
out  without  a  careful  examination  of  the  avail- 
able character  of  the  principal  genera,  such  as 
architects  have  not  hitherto  undertaken.  The 
proposal  which  I  heard  advanced  the  other  day, 
of  adding  a  bold  entrance-porch  to  the  fayade, 
appeared  to  me  every  way  full  of  advantage, 
the  blankness  of  the  fayade  having  been,  to 
my  mind,  from  the  first,  a  serious  fault  in 


Sculptures  of  Flora  55 

the  design.  If  a  subscription  were  opened 
for  the  purpose  of  erecting  one,  I  should 
think  there  were  few  persons  interested  in 
modern  art  who  would  not  be  glad  to  join 
in  forwarding  such  an  object. 

( I  think  I  could  answer  for  some  portions  of 
the  design  being  superintended  by  the  best  of 
our  modern  sculptors  and  painters ;  and  I  be- 
lieve that,  if  so  superintended,  the  porch  might 
and  would  become  the  crowning  beauty  of  the 
building,  and  make  all  the  difference  between 
its  being  only  a  satisfactory  and  meritorious 
work,  or  a  most  lovely  and  impressive  one. 

( The  interior  decoration  is  a  matter  of  much 
greater  difficulty ;  perhaps  you  will  allow  me  to 
defer  the  few  words  I  have  to  say  about  it  till 
I  have  time  for  another  letter :  which,  however, 
I  hope  to  find  speedily. 

e  Believe  me,  my  dear  Acland, 
e  Ever  affectionately  yours, 

c  J.  RUSKIN.' 


56  Let  Gothic  observe  its  Laws 

The  principles  thus  clearly  enumerated 
by  Mr.  Ruskin  are,  in  the  main,  those  that 
animate  the  earnest  student  of  Gothic.  It 
is  not  for  me  especially  to  advocate  Gothic 
Art,  but  only  to  urge,  that  if  called  into 
life,  it  should  be  in  conformity  to  its  own 
proper  laws  of  vitality.  If,  week  after  week, 
in  my  youth,  with  fresh  senses  and  a  docile 
spirit,  I  have  drunk  in  each  golden  glow 
that  is  poured  by  a  Mediterranean  sun  from 
over  the  blue  Aegean  upon  the  Athenian 
Parthenon  ;  if,  day  by  day,  sitting  on  Mars5 
Hill,  I  have  watched  each  purple  shadow, 
as  the  temple  darkened  in  majesty  against 
the  evening  sky;  if  so,  it  has  been  to  teach 
me,  as  the  alphabet  of  all  Art,  to  love  all 
truth  and  to  hate  all  falsehood,  and  to  kiss  the 
hand  of  every  Master  who  has  brought  down, 
under  whatever  circumstances,  and  in  what- 
ever age,  one  spark  of  true  light  from  the 
Beauty  and  the  subtle  Law  which  stamp  the 


Pre-Raffaelites  lived  but  once          57 

meanest  work  of  the  Everliving,  Everworking, 
Artist. 

So,  at  least,  here  we  have  sought  to  hinder 
all  ornament^  unless  that  ornament  be  free  from 
vicious  carelessness ;  and  to  stop  all  professing 
transcript  of  Nature,  unless  it  be  painstaking, 
sagacious,  and  honest.  Herein,  we  owe  a  just 
debt  of  gratitude  to  the  young  school  of  Artists, 
called,  half  in  jest,  Pre-Raffaelites.  Genuine 
Pre-Raffaelites  lived  but  once.  The  yearning, 
half-graceless  simplicity  which  made  Raffaelle 
what  he  was,  and  which  Raffaelle  lived  himself 
to  lose,  is,  nevertheless,  no  simplicity  after 
Raffaelle  died.  But  faithful  love  of  the  Nature 
of  God,  and  power  to  select  by  our  reason,  and 
by  a  cultivated  mind,  that  which  is  fit  for 
human  work,  and  which  human  skill  can  accom- 
plish, is  of  all  time — of  our  times,  as  well  as 
of  the  days  of  Giotto,  or  of  the  almost  matchless 
hand  and  heart  of  Van  Eyck.  Woe  to  us  in  the 
judgement  of  posterity,  if,  knowingly,  because 


58  Be  not  hasty  to  finish 

we  care  not,  or  unknowingly,  because  we  see 
not,  we  either  will  not  work  faithfully  in  our 
Art  ourselves,  or  cannot  let  others  work  who 
will.  Rather  do  as  we  have  done — carve  one 
capital  as  well  as  we  can,  though  that  be  feebly, 
— and  so  cheer  one  human  heart,  that  his  love 
in  his  daily  work  may  be  stamped  on  our  and 
his  behalf  for  centuries,  rather  than  varnish  the 
whole  surface  with  endless  design,  which  is  too 
coarse  to  be  an  imitation  of  natural  objects, 
and  too  mean  and  too  often  repeated,  to  be 
counted  within  the  range  of  Art. 

This,  then,  we  have  desired  in  our  area ;  to 
represent  some  natural  objects  as  our  best 
workmen  feel  them ;  to  do  a  few  well ;  and  to 
wait  for  completion  to  a  future  day,  when  the 
hewn  blocks  may  be  carved  by  the  imagination, 
or  in  the  reality,  as  our  children  will. 

I  must  now,  for  the  present,  bid  you  and  the 
building  farewell.  With  no  wish  to  deprecate, 
but  rather  earnestly  desiring  your  thorough 


Be  not  hasty  to  finish  59 

criticism  and  your  every  counsel,  I  may  still 
remind  you,  that  though,  perhaps,  not  fully 
aware  of  the  difficulties  through  which  the 
Museum  has  become  what  it  is,  you  cannot 
be  more  convinced  of  the  imperfections  which 
partly  circumstances,  partly  our  common 
nature,  have  stamped  upon  it,  than  are  those 
who,  for  many  years,  trod  each  step  towards 
its  erection,  before  its  Art  was  discussed,  or 
even  its  Artist  named. 


SECOND 
LETTER  FROM  MR.  RUSKIN 


'January  20,  1859. 
DEAR  ACLAND, 

6 1  was  not  able  to  write,  as  I  had  hoped, 
from  Switzerland,  for  I  found  it  impossible  to 
lay  down  any  principles  respecting  the  decora- 
tions of  the  Museum  which  did  not  in  one  way 
or  other  involve  disputed  points,  too  many,  and 
too  subtle,  to  be  discussed  in  a  letter.  Nor  do 
I  feel  the  difficulty  less  in  writing  to  you  now, 
so  far  as  regards  the  question  occurring  in  our 
late  conversations,  respecting  the  best  mode  of 
completing  these  interior  decorations.  Yet 
I  must  write,  if  only  to  ask  that  I  may  be  in 


Need  of  New  Knowledge  61 

some  way  associated  with  you  in  what  you 
are  now  doing  to  bring  the  Museum  more 
definitely  before  the  public  mind;  that  I 
may  be  associated  at  least  in  the  expression 
of  my  deep  sense  of  the  noble  purpose  of  the 
building — of  the  noble  sincerity  of  effort  in 
its  architect — of  the  endless  good  which  the 
teachings  to  which  it  will  be  devoted  must, 
in  their  ultimate  issue,  accomplish  for  man- 
kind. How  vast  the  range  of  that  issue,  you 
have  shown  in  the  lecture  which  I  have  just 
read,  in  which  you  have  so  admirably  traced 
the  chain  of  the  physical  sciences  as  it  en- 
compasses the  great  concords  of  this  visible 
universe.  But  how  deep  the  workings  of 
these  new  springs  of  knowledge  are  to  be — 
and  how  great  our  need  of  them,  and  how 
far  the  brightness  and  the  beneficence  of 
them  are  to  reach  among  all  the  best  interests 
of  men — perhaps  none  of  us  can  yet  con- 
ceive, far  less  know  or  say.  For,  much  as  I 
G 


62          Mr.  Ruskiris  Second  Letter 

reverence  physical  science  as  a  means  of 
mental  education  (and  you  know  how  I  have 
contended  for  it,  as  such,  now  these  twenty 
years,  from  the  sunny  afternoon  of  spring 
when  Ehrenberg,  and  you,  and  I,  went  hunt- 
ing for  infusoria  in  Christ  Church  meadow 
streams,  to  the  hour  when  the  prize  offered 
by  Sir  Walter  Trevelyan  and  yourself  for 
the  best  essay  on  the  Fauna  of  that  meadow, 
marked  the  opening  of  a  new  era  in  English 
education) — much,  I  say,  as  I  reverence 
physical  science  in  this  function,  I  rever- 
ence it,  at  this  moment,  more  as  the  source 
of  utmost  human  practical  power,  and  the 
means  by  which  the  far  distant  races  of  the 
world,  who  now  sit  in  darkness  and  the 
shadow  of  death,  are  to  be  reached  and 
regenerated.  At  home  or  far  away — the  call 
is  equally  instant — here,  for  want  of  more 
extended  physical  science,  there  is  plague  in 
our  streets,  famine  in  our  fields;  the  pest 


Practical  Power  of  Science  63 

strikes  root  and  fruit  over  a  hemisphere  of 
the  earth,  we  know  not  why ;  the  voices  of  our 
children  fade  away  into  silence  of  venomous 
death,  we  know  not  why;  the  population 
of  this  most  civilized  country  resists  every 
effort  to  lead  it  into  purity  of  habit  and 
habitation, — to  give  it  genuineness  of  nourish- 
ment, and  wholesomeness  of  air,  as  a  new 
interference  with  its  liberty ;  and  insists  voci- 
ferously on  its  right  to  helpless  death.  All 
this  is  terrible;  but  it  is  more  terrible  yet 
that  dim,  phosphorescent,  frightful  supersti- 
tions still  hold  their  own  over  two-thirds  of  the 
inhabited  globe;  and  that  all  the  phenomena 
of  nature  which  were  intended  by  the  Creator 
to  enforce  His  eternal  laws  of  love  and  judge- 
ment, and  which,  rightly  understood,  enforce 
them  more  strongly  by  their  patient  benefi- 
cence, and  their  salutary  destructiveness,  than 
the  miraculous  dew  on  Gideon*  s  fleece,  or 
the  restrained  lightnings  of  Horeb — that  all 


64  Mr.  Ruskin's  Second  Letter 

these  legends  of  GocPs  daily  dealing  with  His 
creatures  remain  unread,  or  are  read  back- 
wards, into  blind,  hundred-armed  horror  of 
idol  cosmogony. 

( How  strange  it  seems  that  physical  science 
should  ever  have  been  thought  adverse  to 
religion.  The  pride  of  physical  science  is, 
indeed,  adverse,  like  every  other  pride,  both 
to  religion  and  to  truth ;  but  sincerity  of 
science,  so  far  from  being  hostile,  is  the  path- 
maker  among  the  mountains  for  the  feet  of 
those  who  publish  peace. 

( Now,  therefore,  and  now  only,  it  seems  to 
me,  the  University  has  become  complete  in 
her  function  as  a  teacher  of  the  youth  of 
the  nation,  to  which  every  hour  gives  wider 
authority  over  distant  lands;  and  from  which 
every  rood  of  extended  dominion  demands  new, 
various,  and  variously  applicable  knowledge 
of  the  laws  which  govern  the  constitution 
of  the  globe,  and  must  finally  regulate  the 


Noble  Scope  of  the  Museum  65 

industry,  no  less  than  discipline  the  intellect 
of  the  human  race.  I  can  hardly  turn  my 
mind  from  these  deep  causes  of  exultation  to 
the  minor  difficulties  which  beset  or  restrict 
your  undertaking.  The  great  work  is  accom- 
plished ;  the  immediate  impression  made  by  it 
is  of  little  importance;  and  as  for  my  own 
special  subjects  of  thought  or  aim,  though 
many  of  them  are  closely  involved  in  what  has 
been  done,  and  some  principles  which  I  believe 
to  be,  in  their  way,  of  great  importance,  are 
awkwardly  compromised  in  what  has  been 
imperfectly  done, — all  these  I  am  tempted  to 
waive,  or  content  to  compromise,  when  only  I 
know  that  the  building  is  in  main  points  fit  for 
its  mighty  work.  Yet  you  will  not  think  that 
it  was  matter  of  indifference  to  me  when  I  saw, 
as  I  went  over  Professor  Brodie's  chemical 
laboratories  the  other  day,  how  closely  this 
success  of  adaptation  was  connected  with  the 
choice  of  the  style.  It  was  very  touching  and 


66  Mr.  Ruskiris  Second  Letter 

wonderful  to  me.  Here  was  the  architecture 
which  I  had  learned  to  know  and  love  in 
pensive  ruins,  deserted  by  the  hopes  and  efforts 
of  men,  or  in  dismantled  fortress-fragments 
recording  only  their  cruelty; — here  was  this 
very  architecture  lending  itself,  as  if  created 
only  for  these,  to  the  foremost  activities  of 
human  discovery,  and  the  tenderest  functions 
of  human  mercy.  No  other  architecture,  as  I 
felt  in  an  instant,  could  have  thus  adapted 
itself  to  a  new  and  strange  office.  No  fixed 
arrangements  of  frieze  and  pillar,  nor  accepted 
proportions  of  wall  and  roof,  nor  practised 
refinements  of  classical  decoration,  could  have 
otherwise  than  absurdly  and  fantastically 
yielded  its  bed  to  the  crucible,  and  its  blast 
to  the  furnace;  but  these  old  vaultings  and 
strong  buttresses — ready  always  to  do  service 
to  man,  whatever  his  bidding — to  shake  the 
waves  of  war  back  from  his  seats  of  rock,  or 
prolong  through  faint  twilights  of  sanctuary, 


Gothic  adapts  itself  to  all  Purposes     67 

the  sighs  of  his  superstition — he  had  but  to  ask 
it  of  them,  and  they  entered  at  once  into  the 
lowliest  ministries  of  the  arts  of  healing,  and 
the  sternest  and  clearest  offices  in  the  service 
of  science. 

cAnd  the  longer  I  examined  the  Museum 
arrangements,  the  more  I  felt  that  it  could  be 
only  some  accidental  delay  in  the  recognition 
of  this  efficiency  for  its  work,  which  had 
caused  any  feeling  adverse  to  its  progress 
among  the  members  of  the  University.  The 
general  idea  about  the  Museum  has  perhaps 
been,  hitherto,  that  it  is  a  forced  endeavour 
to  bring  decorative  forms  of  architecture  into 
uncongenial  uses  ;  whereas,  the  real  fact 
is,  as  far  as  I  can  discern  it,  that  no  other 
architecture  would,  under  the  required  cir- 
cumstances, have  been  possible;  and  that  any 
effort  to  introduce  classical  types  of  form  into 
these  laboratories  and  museums  must  have 
ended  in  ludicrous  discomfiture.  But  the 


68  Mr.  Ruskin's  Second  Letter 

building  has  nerfr  reached  a  point  of  crisis, 
and  it  depends  upon  the  treatment  which  its 
rooms  now  receive  in  completion,  whether  the 
facts  of  their  propriety  and  utility  be  acknow- 
ledged by  the  public,  or  lost  sight  of  in  the 
distraction  of  their  attention  to  matters  wholly 
external. 

'  So  strongly  I  feel  this,  that  whatever  means 
of  decoration  had  been  at  your  disposal,  I 
should  have  been  inclined  to  recommend  an 
exceeding  reserve  in  that  matter.  Perhaps,  I 
should  even  have  desired  such  reserve  on 
abstract  grounds  of  feeling.  The  study  of 
Natural  History  is  one  eminently  addressed  to 
the  active  energies  of  body  and  mind.  Nothing 
is  to  be  got  out  of  it  by  dreaming,  not  always 
much  by  thinking — everything  by  seeking  and 
seeing.  It  is  work  for  the  hills  and  fields — 
work  of  foot  and  hand,  knife  and  hammer — so 
far  as  it  is  to  be  afterwards  carried  on  in  the 
house;  the  more  active  and  workmanlike  our 


Gothic  Art,  Difficult  Art  69 

proceedings  the  better,  fresh  air  blowing  in 
from  the  windows,  and  nothing  interfering  with 
the  free  space  for  our  shelves  and  instruments 
on  the  walls.  I  am  not  sure  that  much  interior 
imagery  or  colour,  or  other  exciting  address  to 
any  of  the  observant  faculties,  would  be  desir- 
able under  such  circumstances.  You  know 
best;  but  I  should  no  more  think  of  painting 
in  bright  colours  beside  you,  while  you  were 
dissecting  or  analysing,  than  of  entertaining 
you  by  a  concert  of  fifes  and  cymbals. 

6  But  farther — do  you  suppose  Gothic  decora- 
tion is  an  easy  thing,  or  that  it  is  to  be  carried 
out  with  a  certainty  of  success  at  the  first  trial 
under  new  and  difficult  conditions?  The 
system  of  the  Gothic  decorations  took  eight 
hundred  years  to  mature,  gathering  its  power 
by  undivided  inheritance  of  traditional  method, 
and  unbroken  accession  of  systematic  power; 
from  its  culminating  point  in  the  Sainte 
Chapelle,  it  faded  through  four  hundred  years 


70  Mr.  Ruskin's  Second  Letter 

of  splendid  decline;  now  for  two  centuries  it 
has  lain  dead — and  more  than  so — buried ;  and 
more  than  so,  forgotten,  as  a  dead  man  out  of 
mind.  Do  you  expect  to  revive  it  out  of  those 
retorts  and  furnaces  of  yours,  as  the  cloud- 
spirit  of  the  Arabian  sea  rose  from  beneath 
the  seals  of  Solomon?  Perhaps  I  have  been 
myself  faultfully  answerable  for  this  too  eager 
hope  in  your  mind  (as  well  as  in  that  of 
others),  by  what  I  have  urged  so  often  re- 
specting the  duty  of  bringing  out  the  power 
of  subordinate  workmen  in  decorative  design. 
But  do  you  think  I  meant  workmen  trained 
(or  untrained)  in  the  way  that  ours  have 
been  until  lately,  and  then  cast  loose  on 
a  sudden,  into  unassisted  contention  with 
unknown  elements  of  style?  I  meant  the 
precise  contrary  of  this;  I  meant  workmen 
as  we  have  yet  to  create  them :  men  inheriting 
the  instincts  of  their  craft  through  many  gen- 
erations, rigidly  trained  in  every  mechanical 


Workmen  to  be  trained  71 

art  that  bears  on  their  materials,  and  fami- 
liarized from  infancy  with  every  condition  of 
their  beautiful  and  perfect  treatment ;  informed 
and  refined  in  manhood,  by  constant  observa- 
tion of  all  natural  fact  and  form ;  then  classed, 
according  to  their  proved  capacities,  in  ordered 
companies,  in  which  every  man  shall  know  his 
part,  and  take  it  calmly,  and  without  effort  or 
doubt — indisputably  well — unaccusably  accom- 
plished— mailed  and  weaponed  cap-a-pie  for 
his  place  and  function.  Can  you  lay  your 
hand  on  such  men  ?  or  do  you  think  that 
mere  natural  good-will  and  good-feeling  can 
at  once  supply  their  place  ?  Not  so — and  the 
more  faithful  and  earnest  the  minds  you  have 
to  deal  with,  the  more  careful  you  should  be 
not  to  urge  them  towards  fields  of  effort,  in 
which,  too  early  committed,  they  can  only  be 
put  to  unserviceable  defeat. 

tfNor  can  you  hope  to  accomplish,  by  rule 
or  system,  what  cannot  be  done  by  individual 


72  Mr.  Ruskin's  Second  Letter 

taste.  The  laws  of  colour  are  definable,  up  to 
certain  limits,  but  they  are  not  yet  defined. 
So  far  are  they  from  definition,  that  the  last, 
and,  on  the  whole,  best  work  on  the  subject 
(Sir  Gardner  Wilkinson's)  declares  the  (( colour 
concords"  of  preceding  authors  to  be  discords ; 
and  vice  versa. 

c  Much,  therefore,  as  I  love  colour  decoration 
when  it  is  rightly  given,  and  essential  as  it  has 
been  felt  by  the  great  architects  of  all  periods 
to  the  completion  of  their  work,  I  would  not, 
in  your  place,  endeavour  to  carry  out  such 
decoration  at  present,  in  any  elaborate  degree, 
in  the  interior  of  the  Museum.  Leave  it  for 
future  thought :  above  all,  try  no  experiments. 
Let  small  drawings  be  made  of  the  proposed 
arrangements  of  colour  in  every  room;  have 
them  altered  on  the  paper  till  you  feel  they  are 
right ;  then  carry  them  out  firmly  and  simply ; 
but,  observe,  with  as  delicate  execution  as 
possible.  Rough  work  is  good  in  its  place, 


Economy  unfortunate  73 

three  hundred  feet  above  the  eye,  on  a  cathe- 
dral front,  but  not  in  the  interior  of  rooms, 
devoted  to  studies  in  which  everything  de- 
pends upon  accuracy  of  touch  and  keenness 
of  sight. 

6  With  respect  to  this  finishing,  by  the  last 
touches  bestowed  on  the  sculpture  of  the 
building,  I  feel  painfully  the  harmfulness 
of  any  ill-advised  parsimony  at  this  moment. 
For  it  may,  perhaps,  be  alleged  by  the  advo- 
cates of  retrenchment,  that  so  long  as  the 
building  is  fit  for  its  uses  (and  your  report 
is  conclusive  as  to  its  being  so),  economy 
in  treatment  of  external  feature  is  perfectly 
allowable,  and  will  in  no  wise  diminish  the 
serviceableness  of  the  building  in  the  great 
objects  which  its  designs  regarded.  To  a  cer- 
tain extent  this  is  true.  You  have  comfortable 
rooms,  I  hope  sufficient  apparatus ;  and  it  now 
depends  much  more  on  the  professors  than 
on  the  ornaments  of  the  building,  whether  or 


74          Mr.  Ruskin's  Second  Letter 

not  it  is  to  become  a  bright  or  obscure  centre 
of  public  instruction.  Yet  there  are  other 
points  to  be  considered.  As  the  building 
stands  at  present,  there  is  a  discouraging 
aspect  of  parsimony  about  it.  One  sees  that 
the  architect  has  done  the  utmost  he  could 
with  the  means  at  his  disposal,  and  that  just 
at  the  point  of  reaching  what  was  right,  he 
has  been  stopped  for  want  of  funds.  This 
is  visible  in  almost  every  stone  of  the  edifice. 
It  separates  it  with  broad  distinctiveness  from 
all  the  other  buildings  in  the  University.  It 
may  be  seen  at  once  that  our  other  public 
institutions,  and  all  our  colleges — though  some 
of  them  simply  designed — are  yet  richly  built, 
never  pinchingly.  Pieces  of  princely  cost- 
liness, every  here  and  there,  mingle  among 
the  simplicities  or  severities  of  the  student's 
life.  What  practical  need,  for  instance,  have  we 
at  Christ  Church  of  the  beautiful  fan-vaulting 
under  which  we  ascend  to  dine?  We  might 


Richness  of  Work  a  Sign  of  Regard    75 

have  as  easily  achieved  the  eminence  of  our 
banquets  under  a  plain  vault.  What  need 
have  the  readers  in  the  Bodleian  of  the  ribbed 
traceries  which  decorate  its  external  walls  ? 
Yet,  which  of  those  readers  would  not  think 
that  learning  was  insulted  by  their  removal? 
And  are  there  any  of  the  students  of  Balliol 
devoid  of  gratitude  for  the  kindly  munificence 
of  the  man  who  gave  them  the  beautiful 
sculptured  brackets  of  their  oriel  window, 
when  three  massy  projecting  stones  would  have 
answered  the  purpose  just  as  well?  In  these 
and  all  other  regarded  and  pleasant  portions 
of  our  colleges,  we  find  always  a  wealthy  and 
worthy  completion  of  all  appointed  features, 
which  I  believe  is  not  without  strong,  though 
untraced  effect,  on  the  minds  of  the  younger 
scholars,  giving  them  respect  for  the  branches 
of  learning  which  these  buildings  are  intended 
to  honour,  and  increasing,  in  a  certain  degree, 
that  sense  of  the  value  of  delicacy  and  accuracy 


76  Mr.  Ruskin's  Second  Letter 

which   is   the   first    condition   of    advance    in 
those  branches  of  learning  themselves. 

'Your  Museum,  if  you  now  bring  it  to 
hurried  completion,  will  convey  an  impression 
directly  the  reverse  of  this.  It  will  have  the 
look  of  a  place,  not  where  a  revered  system 
of  instruction  is  established,  but  where  an  un- 
advised experiment  is  being  disadvantageously 
attempted.  It  is  yet  in  your  power  to  avoid 
this,  and  to  make  the  edifice  as  noble  in  aspect 
as  in  function.  Whatever  chance  there  may  be 
of  failure  in  interior  work,  rich  ornamentation 
may  be  given,  without  any  chance  of  failure, 
to  just  that  portion  of  the  exterior  which  will 
give  pleasure  to  every  passer-by,  and  express 
the  meaning  of  the  building  best  to  the  eyes 
of  strangers.  There  is,  I  repeat,  no  chance  of 
serious  failure  in  this  external  decoration,  be- 
cause your  architect  has  at  his  command  the 
aid  of  men,  such  as  worked  with  the  architects 
of  past  times.  Not  only  has  the  art  of  Gothic 


Sculpture  our  Best  Ornament         77 

sculpture  in  part  remained,  though  that  of 
Gothic  colour  has  been  long  lost,  but  the 
unselfish — and  I  regret  to  say,  in  part  self- 
sacrificing — zeal  of  two  first-rate  sculptors, 
Mr.  Munro  and  Mr.  Woolner,  which  has 
already  given  you  a  series  of  noble  statues, 
is  still  at  your  disposal  to  head  and  systematize 
the  efforts  of  inferior  workmen. 

( I  do  not  know  if  you  will  attribute  it  to  a 
higher  estimate  than  yours  of  the  genius  of 
the  O'Shea  family,  or  to  a  lower  estimate  of 
what  they  have  as  yet  accomplished,  that  I 
believe  they  will,  as  they  proceed,  produce 
much  better  ornamental  sculpture  than  any  at 
present  completed  in  the  Museum.  It  is  also 
to  be  remembered  that  sculptors  are  able  to 
work  for  us  with  a  directness  of  meaning  which 
none  of  our  painters  could  bring  to  their  task, 
even  were  they  disposed  to  help  us.  A  painter 
is  scarcely  excited  to  his  strength,  but  by 
subjects  full  of  circumstance,  such  as  it  would 

H 


78  Mr.  Ruskin's  Second  Letter 

be  difficult  to  suggest  appropriately  in  the  pre- 
sent building ;  but  a  sculptor  has  room  enough 
for  his  full  power,  in  the  portrait  statues, 
which  are  necessarily  the  leading  features 
of  good  Gothic  decoration.  Let  me  pray 
you,  therefore,  so  far  as  you  have  influence 
with  the  Delegacy,  to  entreat  their  favourable 
consideration  of  the  project  stated  in  Mr. 
GresswelPs  appeal — the  enrichment  of  the 
doorway,  and  the  completion  of  the  sculpture 
of  the  West  Front.  There  is  a  reason  for 
desiring  such  a  plan  to  be  carried  out,  of  wider 
reach  than  any  bearing  on  the  interests  of  the 
Museum  itself.  I  believe  that  the  elevation 
of  all  arts  in  England  to  their  true  dignity, 
depends  principally  on  our  recovering  that 
unity  of  purpose  in  sculptors  and  architects, 
which  characterized  the  designers  of  all  great 
Christian  buildings.  Sculpture,  separated  from 
architecture,  always  degenerates  into  effemin- 
acies and  conceits;  architecture,  stripped  of 


Commemorative  Statues  79 

sculpture,  is  at  best  a  convenient  arrangement 
of  dead  walls ;  associated,  they  not  only  adorn, 
but  reciprocally  exalt  each  other,  and  give  to 
all  the  arts  of  the  country  in  which  they  thus 
exist,  a  correspondent  tone  of  majesty. 

6  But  I  would  plead  for  the  enrichment  of  this 
doorway  by  portrait  sculpture,  not  so  much 
even  on  any  of  these  important  grounds,  as 
because  it  would  be  the  first  example  in 
modern  English  architecture  of  the  real  value 
and  right  place  of  commemorative  statues. 
We  seem  never  to  know  at  present  where  to 
put  such  statues.  In  the  midst  of  the  blighted 
trees  of  desolate  squares,  or  at  the  crossings  of 
confused  streets,  or  balanced  on  the  pinnacles 
of  pillars,  or  riding  across  the  tops  of  triumphal 
arches,  or  blocking  up  the  aisles  of  cathedrals, 
in  none  of  these  positions,  I  think,  does  the 
portrait  statue  answer  its  purpose.  It  may  be 
a  question  whether  the  erection  of  such  statues 
is  honourable  to  the  erectors,  but  assuredly  it  is 

H  2 


80  Mr.  Ruskin's  Second  Letter 

not  honourable  to  the  persons  whom  it  pretends 
to  commemorate;  nor  is  it  anywise  matter  of 
exultation  to  a  man  who  has  deserved  well  of 
his  country,  to  reflect  that  his  effigy  may  one 
day  encumber  a  crossing,  or  disfigure  a  park 
gate.  But  there  is  no  man  of  worth  or  heart, 
who  would  not  feel  it  a  high  and  priceless 
reward  that  his  statue  should  be  placed  where 
it  might  remind  the  youth  of  England  of  what 
had  been  exemplary  in  his  life,  or  useful  in  his 
labours,  and  might  be  regarded  with  no  empty 
reverence,  no  fruitless  pensiveness,  but  with 
the  emulative,  eager,  unstinted  passionateness 
of  honour,  which  youth  pays  to  the  dead  leaders 
of  the  cause  it  loves,  or  discoverers  of  the  light 
by  which  it  lives.  To  be  buried  under  weight 
of  marble,  or  with  splendour  of  ceremonial,  is 
still  no  more  than  burial;  but  to  be  remem- 
bered daily,  with  profitable  tenderness,  by  the 
activest  intelligences  of  the  nation  we  have 
served,  and  to  have  power  granted  even  to  the 


Portraiture  of  Animals  and  Plants    81 

shadows  of  the  poor  features,,  sunk  into  dust, 
still  to  warn,,  to  animate,  to  command,  as  the 
father's  brow  rules  and  exalts  the  toil  of  his 
children.  This  is  not  burial,  but  immor- 
tality. 

'  There  is,  however,  another  kind  of  portrai- 
ture, already  richly  introduced  in  the  works  of 
the  Museum  ;  the  portraiture,  namely,  of  flowers 
and  animals,  respecting  which  I  must  ask  you 
to  let  me  say  a  few  selfish,  no  less  than  congra- 
tulatory words — selfish,  inasmuch  as  they  bear 
on  this  visible  exposition  of  a  principle  which 
it  has  long  been  one  of  my  most  earnest  aims 
to  maintain.  We  English  call  ourselves  a  prac- 
tical people;  but,  nevertheless,  there  are  some 
of  our  best  and  most  general  instincts  which 
it  takes  us  half-centuries  to  put  into  practice. 
Probably  no  educated  Englishman  or  English- 
woman has  ever,  for  the  last  forty  years, 
visited  Scotland,  with  leisure  on  their  hands, 
without  making  a  pilgrimage  to  Melrose ;  nor 


82  Mr.  Ruskin's  Second  Letter 

have  they  ever,  I  suppose,  accomplished  the 
pilgrimage  without  singing  to  themselves  the 
burden  of  Scott's  description  of  the  Abbey. 
Nor  in  that  description  (may  it  not  also  be 
conjectured  ?)  do  they  usually  feel  any  couplets 
more  deeply  than  the — 

"  Spreading  herbs  and  flowerets  bright 
Glistened  with  the  dew  of  night. 
No  herb  nor  floweret  glistened  there, 
But  was  carved  in  the  cloister  arches  as  fair." 

And  yet,  though  we  are  raising  every  year  in 
England  new  examples  of  every  kind  of  costly 
and  variously  intended  buildings  —  ecclesias- 
tical, civil,  and  domestic — none  of  us,  through 
all  that  period,  had  boldness  enough  to  put 
the  pretty  couplets  into  simple  practice.  We 
went  on,  even  in  the  best  Gothic  work  we 
attempted,  clumsily  copying  the  rudest  orna- 
ments of  previous  buildings;  we  never  so 
much  as  dreamed  of  learning  from  the  monks 
of  Melrose,  and  seeking  for  help  beneath  the 


Monks  of  Melrose  83 

dew    that    sparkled    on    their    "  gude    kail " 
garden  3. 

'  Your  Museum  at  Oxford  is  literally  the  first 
building  raised  in  England  since  the  close  of 
the  fifteenth  century,  which  has  fearlessly  put 
to  new  trial  this  old  faith  in  nature,  and  in  the 
genius  of  the  unassisted  workman,  who  gathered 
out  of  nature  the  materials  he  needed.  I  am 
entirely  glad,  therefore,  that  you  have  decided 
on  engraving  for  publication  one  of  O'Shea's 
capitals2;  it  will  be  a  complete  type  of  the 
whole  work,  in  its  inner  meaning,  and  far  better 
to  show  one  of  them  in  its  completeness,  than 
to  give  any  reduced  sketch  of  the  building. 

1  'The  monks  of  Melrose  made  good  kail 
On  Friday,  when  they  fasted.' 

The  kail  leaf  is  the  one  principally  employed  in  the 
decorations  of  the  abbey. 

2  See  vignette  Frontispiece.    The  capital  represents  the 
following  ferns  : — 

Scolopendrium  vulgare, 
Blechnum  boreale, 
Filix  mas. 


84  Mr.  Ruskiris  Second  Letter 

Nevertheless,  beautiful  as  that  capital  is,  and 
as  all  the  rest  of  O'Shea's  work  is  likely  to 
be,  it  is  not  yet  perfect  Gothic  sculpture ;  and 
it  might  give  rise  to  dangerous  error,  if  the 
admiration  given  to  these  carvings  were  un- 
qualified. 

6 1  cannot,  of  course,  enter  in  this  letter  into 
any  discussion  of  the  question,  more  and  more 
vexed  among  us  daily,  respecting  the  due 
meaning  and  scope  of  conventionalism  in  treat- 
ment of  natural  form ;  but  I  may  state  briefly 
what,  I  trust,  will  be  the  conclusion  to  which 
all  this  "  vexing "  will  at  last  lead  our  best 
architects. 

'  The  highest  art  in  all  kinds  is  that  which 
conveys  the  most  truth,  and  the  best  ornamen- 
tation possible  would  be  the  painting  of  interior 
walls  with  frescoes  by  Titian,  representing  per- 
fect Humanity  in  colour ;  and  the  sculpture  of 
exterior  walls  by  Phidias,  representing  perfect 
Humanity  in  form.  Titian  and  Phidias  are 


Naturalism  and  Conventionalism      85 

precisely  alike  in  their  conception  and  treat- 
ment of  nature — everlasting  standards  of  the 
right. 

'Beneath  ornamentation,  such  as  men  like 
these  could  bestow,  falls  in  various  rank,  ac- 
cording to  its  subordination  to  vulgar  uses  or 
inferior  places,  what  is  commonly  conceived  as 
ornamental  art.  The  lower  its  office,  and  the 
less  tractable  its  material,  the  less  of  nature  it 
should  contain,  until  a  zig-zag  becomes  the  best 
ornament  for  the  hem  of  a  robe,  and  a  mosaic 
of  bits  of  glass  the  best  design  for  a  coloured 
window.  But  all  these  forms  of  lower  art  are 
to  be  conventional  only  because  they  are 
subordinate: — not  because  conventionalism  is 
in  itself  a  good  or  desirable  thing.  All  right 
conventionalism  is  a  wise  acceptance  of,  and 
compliance  with,  conditions  of  restraint  or  in- 
feriority;— it  may  be  inferiority  of  our  know- 
ledge or  power — as  in  the  art  of  a  semi-savage 
nation;  or  restraint  by  reason  of  material — as 


86  Mr.  Ruskirfs  Second  Letter 

in  the  way  the  glass-painter  should  restrict 
himself  to  transparent  hue,  and  a  sculptor 
deny  himself  the  eyelash  and  the  film  of  flow- 
ing hair,  which  he  cannot  cut  in  marble; — 
but  in  all  cases  whatever,  right  convention- 
alism is  either  a  wise  acceptance  of  an  inferior 
place,  or  a  noble  display  of  power  under  ac- 
cepted limitation :  it  is  not  an  improvement  of 
natural  form  into  something  better  or  purer 
than  Nature  herself. 

'  Now  this  great  and  most  precious  principle 
may  be  compromised  in  two  quite  opposite 
ways.  It  is  compromised  on  one  side,  when 
men  suppose  that  the  degradation  of  a  natural 
form  which  fits  it  for  some  subordinate  place 
is  an  improvement  of  it;  and  that  a  black 
profile  on  a  red  ground,  because  it  is  proper 
on  a  water-jug,  is  therefore  an  idealization  of 
Humanity,  and  nobler  art  than  a  picture  of 
Titian.  And  it  is  compromised  equally  gravely 
on  the  opposite  side,  when  men  refuse  to  submit 


Gothic  Revival  still  incomplete         87 

to  the  limitation  of  material  and  the  fitnesses 
of  office ;  when  they  try  to  produce  finished 
pictures  in  coloured  glass,  or  substitute  the  in- 
considerate imitation  of  natural  objects  for  the 
perfectness  of  adapted  and  disciplined  design. 

6  There  is  a  tendency  in  the  work  of  the 
Oxford  Museum  to  err  on  this  last  side ;  un- 
avoidable, indeed,  in  the  present  state  of  our 
art-knowledge — and  less  to  be  regretted  in  a 
building  devoted  to  natural  science  than  in  any 
other:  nevertheless,  I  cannot  close  this  letter 
without  pointing  it  out,  and  warning  the  general 
reader  against  supposing  that  the  ornamentation 
of  the  Museum  is,  or  can  be  as  yet,  a  repre- 
sentation of  what  Gothic  work  will  be,  when  its 
revival  is  complete.  Far  more  severe,  yet  more 
perfect  and  lovely,  that  work  will  involve, 
under  sterner  conventional  restraint,  the  ex- 
pression not  only  of  natural  form,  but  of  all 
vital  and  noble  natural  law.  For  the  truth  of 
decoration  is  never  to  be  measured  by  its 


88  Mr.  Rtt  skin's  Second  Letter 

imitative  power,  but  by  its  suggestive  and  infor- 
mative power.  In  the  annexed  spandrel  of  the 
iron-work  of  our  roof,  for  instance,  the  horse- 
chesnut  leaf  and  nut  are  used  as  the  principal 
elements  of  form :  they  are  not  ill-arranged, 
and  produce  a  more  agreeable  effect  than  con- 
volutions of  the  iron  could  have  given,  unhelped 
by  any  reference  to  natural  objects.  Neverthe- 
less, I  do  not  call  it  an  absolutely  good  design ; 
for  it  would  have  been  possible,  with  far  severer 
conventional  treatment  of  the  iron  bars,  and 
stronger  constructive  arrangement  of  them,  to 
have  given  vigorous  expression,  not  of  the  shapes 
of  leaves  and  nuts  only,  but  of  their  peculiar 
radiant  or  fanned  expansion,  and  other  condi- 
tions of  group  and  growth  in  the  tree;  which 
would  have  been  just  the  more  beautiful  and 
interesting,  as  they  would  have  arisen  from 
deeper  research  into  nature,  and  more  adaptive 
modifying  power  in  the  designer's  mind,  than 
the  mere  leaf  termination  of  a  rivetted  scroll. 


Iron  Spandrel 


89 


go  Mr.  Ruskin's  Second  Letter 

( I  am  compelled  to  name  these  deficiencies,  in 
order  to  prevent  misconception  of  the  principles 
we  are  endeavouring  to  enforce;  but  I  do  not 
name  them  as  at  present  to  be  avoided,  or  even 
much  to  be  regretted.  They  are  not  chargeable 
.  either  on  the  architect,  or  on  the  subordinate 
workmen ;  but  only  on  the  system  which  has  for 
three  centuries  withheld  all  of  us  from  healthy 
study;  and  although  I  doubt  not  that  lovelier 
and  juster  expressions  of  the  Gothic  principle 
will  be  ultimately  arrived  at  by  us,  than  any 
which  are  possible  in  the  Oxford  Museum,  its 
builders  will  never  lose  their  claim  to  our  chief 
gratitude,  as  the  first  guides  in  a  right  direc- 
tion ;  and  the  building  itself — the  first  exponent 
of  the  recovered  truth — will  only  be  the  more 
•  venerated  the  more  it  is  excelled. 

( Believe  me,  my  dear  Acland, 

'Ever  affectionately  yours, 

tfj.    RUSKIN.' 


Letter  from  Professor  Phillips         91 

After  the  perusal  of  these  remarks,  any 
further  commentary  would  but  divert  the 
spectator  from  his  own  critical  examination. 
Especially  do  I  wish  the  last  paragraph  to 
be  duly  weighed;  in  the  sense  which  is  there 
expressed  do  I  heartily  commend  the  work 
of  our  architect  to  your  favourable  considera- 
tion. It  remains  to  add  only  to  these  pages 
the  following  explanatory  letter  which  Pro- 
fessor Phillips  has  enabled  and  permitted  me 
to  print. 

'  OXFOBD,  Jan.  21,  1859. 

f  MY    DEAR    ACLAND, 

c  I  lose  no  time  in  stating  very  concisely 
the  purpose  we  had  in  view,  when  it  was  pro- 
posed to  place  shafts  of  British  marbles  in  the 
corridors  of  the  Museum,  and  to  crown  them 
with  capitals  of  natural  objects.  A  few  words 
are  appended  to  show  in  what  degree  we  are 
able  to  effect  the  object,  and  the  method  on 
which  we  proceed. 


92         Letter  from  Professor  Phillips 

'  The  British  marbles  are  still  only  partially 
known.  Including  in  the  term  marbles  some- 
thing more  than  the  "marmora"  of  our  early 
mineralogists,  and  including  granitic  rocks, 
serpentines,  &c.,  we  desired  to  obtain  specimens 
of  all  the  more  important  kinds — important 
on  grounds  of  scientific  interest,  as  well  as 
for  their  commercial  value  and  architectural 
utility.  Here  and  there  our  efforts  failed ;  we 
could  not  "for  love  or  money "  get  the  stone 
we  wanted;  but  on  the  whole  our  success  is 
much  beyond  any  previous  example  in  this, 
and,  I  believe,  in  any  country. 

'In  the  arrangement  of  the  many  valuable 
and  curious  examples  of  polishable  stones, 
which  the  liberality  of  our  friends  has  enabled 
us  to  bring  together,  we  have  always  desired 
to  employ  so  much  of  system  as  to  make 
these  ornamental  parts  of  the  fabric  really  and 
obviously  useful,  as  a  part  of  the  exhibition 
of  natural  objects.  Regarding  the  rocks  as 


Arrangements  of  Shafts  93 

of  aqueous  or  igneous  origin,  and  of  unequal 
geological  date,  we  wished  to  exhibit  these 
relations  in  our  building,  by  giving  to  each 
group  an  appropriate  place.  It  was  found, 
after  great  efforts,  possible  to  accomplish  this 
to  a  considerable  extent,  but  not  quite  so 
perfectly  as  was  hoped.  The  principal  reason 
is  that  we  could  not  obtain  certain  marbles 
known  150  and  more  years  since,  to  complete 
our  series  of  mesozoic  limestones. 

'If  now*  you  will  stand  in  the  centre  of 
the  great  court,  and  turn  your  eyes  to  the 
west,  soils  ad  occasum,  you  will  see,  in  the 
lower  range  of  shafts,  six  fine  examples  of 
granite  and  its  twin-brother  syenite.  First, 
on  the  left,  Aberdeen  gray  granite,  sur- 
mounted by  the  sculptured  capital  of  Alis- 
maceous  plants;  next,  Aberdeen  red  granite, 
crowned  by  the  Butomaceae;  then  the  largely 
porphyritic  gray  granite  of  Lamorna,  with  a 
capital  of  the  date-palm.  On  the  other  side 
i 


94         Letter  from  Professor  Phillips 

of  the  entrance,  stands  my  special  column  of 
syenite    from    Charnwood    Forest,    with    the 
cocoa-palm  for  its  crown;    then  the  beautiful 
mottled  granite  of  Cruachan,  elaborated  for  us 
by  the   Marquis   of  Breadalbane,  the   capital 
being    Pontederaceae ;     and    finally,    the    red 
granite    of    Ross    in    Mull,    the    gift   of    the 
Duke  of  Argyle,  whose  capital  is  Liliaceous. 
6 1  don't  at  all  intend  to  lead  you  so  slowly 
round  the  remainder  of  the  quadrangle.     On 
the  north  you  see  eight  shafts,  all  from  Ireland 
or    Devonshire,    all    belonging    to    palaeozoic, 
stratified,    or    metamorphic    rocks.      At    the 
extreme  are  the  beautiful  marbles  of  Torquay 
and    Mary  church — between    them    the    green 
serpentinous  marbles  of  Galway,  and  red  and 
black-tinted  limestones  of  Cork,  Limerick,  &c. 
The  capitals  will  be  Acotyledonous — (see  the 
splendid    fern    sculpture    above    Marychurch 
shaft) — or   Monocotyledonous,    as    Gramineae, 
Acoracese,  &c. 


Arrangements  of  Shafts  95 

c  Now  turn  to  the  east,  and  behold  a  second 
set  of  igneous  and  metamorphic  rocks,  to  face 
the  old  granites  and  porphyries.  Here,  on 
the  left  (next  to  Marychurch  column)  you  see 
your  own  Killerton  rock  (ancient  —  how 
ancient!)  lava,  crowned  with  Zamiaceae,  from 
which  peeps  the  Didelphys ;  next  the  Rock  of 
Trerice,  its  capital  will  be  a  thorny  Zamia ; 
then  Roche  gives  a  shaft  to  be  capped  by 
Cupressinae ;  next  are  two  serpentines  with 
capitals  of  Abietinae  and  Araucarinse ;  Inverara 
porphyry  follows,  and  supports  sculptured 
branches  of  Taxaceae.  St.  Leven's  porphyry 
and  black  serpentine  complete  this  series,  and 
are  to  bear  on  their  heads  plants  of  the  orders 
Smilaceae  and  Dioscoraceae. 

*On  the  south,  you  have  a  beautiful  and 
pretty  well-known  series  of  English  and  Welsh 
marbles,  mostly  of  the  carboniferous  limestone, 
but  including  what  are  less  commonly  seen, 
the  breccia  of  Mendip  and  the  gypsum  of 

I  2 


96         Letter  from  Professor  Phillips 

Chellaston.  The  plants  destined  to  furnish 
capitals  for  these  are  the  Monocotyledonous 
orders,  as  Orchidaeese,  Musacese,  Iridaceae,  &c. 

'Thus  have  we  thirty  shafts  of  the  larger 
size  placed,  with  their  thirty  capitals  executed 
or  planned.  Besides  the  thirty  capitals  we 
have  to  provide  sixty  corbels,  and  are  doing 
this  so  as  to  add  to  each  capital  a  neighbour 
bearing  some  natural  affinity  to  it.  Only  in 
one  instance  has  this  been  departed  from;  it 
is  in  the  corbel  of  the  Malvaceae,  close  by  the 
Filices — a  case  of  two  quite  different  groups 
wonderfully  executed,  and  looking  at  each 
other  with  mutual  admiration ! 

'Now,  ascend  to  the  upper  corridor,  and 
survey  the  smaller  shafts,  to  the  number  of 
ninety-six,  which  appear  on  its  four  sides. 
As  yet  no  capitals  are  carved  on  them. 
Beginning  on  the  west  side,  and  following  the 
same  order  as  for  the  shafts  below,  you  find 
the  whole  corridor  (twenty-four  shafts)  occupied 


Arrangements  of  Shafts  97 

by  granite,,  porphyry,  serpentine,  &c.  Among 
them  are  granites  of  Aberdeen,  Criffel,  and 
Cornwall — porphyritic  granites  of  remarkable 
richness  (often  called  porphyry),  el  vans,  por- 
phyries, and  various  quartzose  compounds. 

'The  capitals  for  these  shafts  will  be  all 
selected  from  the  Corolliflorous  division  of 
Dicotyledonous  plants. 

'The  northern  upper  corridor  is  wholly 
filled  with  marbles  from  the  carboniferous 
limestone  and  older  rocks  of  Ireland,  including 
the  serpentine  of  Galway.  The  capitals 
will  exemplify  Monochlamydeous  plants  and 
Rhizanths. 

'On  the  western  side  the  series  of  shafts  is 
varied.  It  was  not  found  possible  to  obtain 
for  this  side  all  the  marbles  formerly  known 
and  used  in  the  Oolitic  and  Wealden  districts 
of  England;  and  some  of  the  bays  have  been 
filled  with  other  rocks  which  it  was  desirable 
to  exhibit.  At  the  extremities  we  have  from 


98         Letter  from  Professor  Phillips 

Nottinghamshire,  Derbyshire,  and  Somerset- 
shire, specimens  of  the  Permian  limestones, 
triassic  breccia,  and  gypsum — in  the  centre  are 
granites  of  Jersey  and  Cornwall — flanked  by 
columns  of  slate  and  shafts  of  lias,  blue  and 
white;  marbles  of  Purbeck,  Stamford,  and 
Buckingham. 

( The  capitals  of  these  shafts  will  be 
designed  from  the  Thalamiflorous  division 
of  the  Dicotyledonous  plants. 

6  Lastly,  on  the  south  side  is  a  series  of  the 
finest  rocks  belonging  to  the  carboniferous  and 
Devonian  limestones  of  England  and  Wales, 
including  the  crinoidal  marble  of  Dent  (the 
birthplace  of  Sedgwick,  who  gives  the  shaft), 
the  various  marbles  of  Durham,  Derbyshire, 
Plymouth,  Torquay,  Anglesea,  and  South 
Wales.  It  will  be  interesting  to  compare  these 
with  the  coeval  rocks  of  Ireland,  which  stand 
opposite  to  them.  The  capitals  of  these  will 
be  ornamented  by  Calyciflorous  Dicotyledons. 


Science  and  Art  combined  99 

'  Thus,  as  far  as  possible,  the  representations 
of  plants  (varied  here  and  there  by  animals 
geographically  and  naturally  associated  with 
them),  will  be  placed,  with  so  much  of  system 
as  to  help  the  memory,  and  will  be  sculptured 
with  so  much  attention  to  their  natural  habit, 
as  to  satisfy  the  botanist  as  well  as  the  artist, 
neither  of  whom  can  expect  the  most  skilful 
human  hand  to  express  in  rough  stone,  by 
means  of  hard  steel,  all  the  delicacy  and  grace 
which,  with  finer  materials  and  by  finer  pro- 
cesses, the  GREAT  ARTIFICER  moulds  the  lilies 
of  the  field  and  the  leaves  of  the  forest. 

c  I  need  not  remind  you  that  with  this  view  of 
the  utility  and  meaning  of  the  arrangement  of 
our  subjects,  the  architects  (who  have  been  very 
zealous  in  their  efforts  to  make  the  whole  suc- 
cessful) have  been  always  able  to  combine  what 
is  due  to  the  building  as  a  work  of  art ;  nor  am 
I  aware  that  their  opinions  and  ours  have  been 
in  the  least  degree  difficult  to  reconcile.  We 


ioo        Letter  from  Professor  Phillips 

must  not  forget  the  sculptors,  who  have  worked 
with  singular  zeal  and  ability.  Finally,  this 
is  not  a  haphazard  collection  of  pretty  stones 
crowned  by  pretty  flowers,  but  a  selection  of 
marbles  and  sculptures,  intended  to  illustrate 
points  of  some  interest  and  importance  in 
science  and  art.  Upon  the  whole,  you  will 
probably  not  regret  to  have  given  so  much 
time  and  attention  to  this  matter;  all  that  is 
told  me  confirms  my  own  opinion  that  it  was 
well  worth  while  to  make  this  trial  to  combine 
grace  with  utility,  and  that  the  result  will  not 
be  disappointing  to  those  who  have  given  us 
money  for  our  work,  and,  what  is  more  pre- 
cious, their  full  confidence  that  we  should  use 
it  with  liberality  and  prudence. 

'Ever  yours  truly, 

cJoHN   PHILLIPS/ 

These   pages   have    attempted   to    illustrate 
the  general  scope  of   the   Museum — its  aims 


The  End  101 

in  Art — its  purpose  as  an  Educational  institu- 
tion. Ere  long  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  the 
building  will  be  thought  of  but  as  a  frame 
made  by  a  skilful  Artist — a  frame  in  which 
to  set  the  records  of  that  Art  which  is 
wrought  without  hands. 


NOTES 


I.     STATUES    ALREADY  GIVEN. 

ANCIENTS. 

Aristotle.  Euclid. 

Hippocrates. 

MODERNS. 
Bacon.  Priestley. 

Davy. 
Leibnitz. 

Linnaeus. 

Newton. 

Galileo. 

Sydenham. 

Oersted.  Hunter. 

Watt. 

Stephenson. 


His  Royal  Highness  The  Prince  Consort. 


There  remain  therefore  eighteen  corbels 
awaiting  the  gifts  of  statues  of  the  great  men, 
whether  ancient  or  modern,  who  have  ad- 
vanced the  knowledge  and  inspired  the  grati- 
tude and  respect  of  mankind.  The  University 
will  surely  hail  with  satisfaction  the  gradual 


Statues  already  given  103 

completion  of  these  incentives  to  lives  of 
thought^  more  numerous  as  each  decennium 
quickly  passes  by. 

In  regard  to  medicine,  the  last  of  the  list, 
it  may  be  remarked  that  the  great  Practitioner 
Sydenham  stands  between  the  Physiologist 
and  the  investigator  of  the  whole  range  of 
Biology, — Anatomical,  Physiological,  Patho- 
logical ;  that  these  three  Moderns  are  supported 
on  either  side  by  the  Ancients,  Hippocrates 
and  Aristotle,  the  latter  being  succeeded  in  the 
series  by  Bacon.  The  Student  enters  the  Court 
between  Aristotle  and  Bacon. 


It  has  long  been  hoped  that  corbels  would 
have  been  occupied  by  at  least  the  following  in 
their  several  departments. 

Hipparchus.  Cuvier. 

Archimedes.  Darwin. 

Eobert  Boyle.  Galen. 

Lavoisier.  Haller. 

Faraday.  Boerhaave. 


104  On  the  Irish  Workmen 

Even  so,  very  many  names  immortal  for  their 
work  and  their  example  would  be  absent  from 
us.  Medicine,  for  instance,  the  most  complex 
and  most  difficult  of  all  the  natural  sciences, 
is  typically,  but  quite  inadequately,  represented. 
Will  no  Physicist  have  rendered  into  stone  the 
fine  statue  in  plaster  of  paris  of  Oersted, 
generously  presented  after  much  trouble  and 
expense  by  Herr  Jacobsen  of  Copenhagen  ? 

Will  no  Chemist  erect  Lavoisier  or  Fara- 
day ?  nor  Biologist  Cuvier  or  Darwin  ?  nor 
Astronomer  one  of  the  Herschels  ? 


II.     ON   THE   IRISH   WORKMEN. 

A  few  words  may  here  be  acceptable  con- 
cerning the  relations  of  the  workmen  to  the 
Museum  during  its  erection. 

The  first  step  taken  after  the  foundation 
stone  was  laid  by  the  Earl  of  Derby,  was  to 
erect  on  the  adjoining  ground,  the  future 
Parks,  a  simple  dining-room,  smoking-room, 


On  the  Irish  Workmen  105 

kitchen  and  reading-room:  with  a  caretaker. 
It  was  ascertained  that  less  than  this  arrange- 
ment would  be  unacceptable  and  inadequate. 
All  the  rooms  were  fully  used.  Dr.  Cotton  of 
Worcester  College,  undertook  to  arrange  for 
a  very  short  service  akin  to  Family  Prayers 
just  at  the  breakfast  hour.  Many  of  the  men 
being  strangers  had  only  a  sleeping  room  in 
the  town,  and  this  building  was  their  home. 

Sir  Thomas  Deane  and  Mr.  Woodward  had 
experience  of  Irish  workmen  in  building  the 
Trinity  College  Museum  in  Dublin.  They 
knew  well  the  inventive  character  and  artistic 
nature  of  their  brethren  of  the  Green  Island, 
inherited  from  the  earliest  years  wherein  we 
have  record  of  the  Irish  saints  by  whom  Britain 
was  taught  and  Christianized. 

Some  of  the  workmen  came  over  with  the 
Architects  whose  motto  had  been  Nisi  Dominus 
aedificaverit  domum.  The  strongest  of  these 
men  were  of  the  family  of  O'Shea. 

Mr.  Fergusson,  who  had  more  of  architec- 


io6  On  the  Irish  Workmen 

tural  learning  than  of  humour,  or  of  mediaeval 
instinct,  was  specially  indignant  at  some  of 
the  carvings  done  by  these  men.  These  were 
often  as  beautiful  in  design  as  in  execution 
— though  they  would  occasionally  be  as 
grotesque  as  the  typical  gurgoyle.  One  had 
sometimes  to  say  to  Mr.  Woodward,  c  Oh ! 
why  did  you  not  all  stop  back  in  the  twelfth 
or  thirteenth  century,  your  proper  place,  and 
not  drop  down  to  invade  us  prosaic  folk  here/ 
But  in  vain.  Art  and  humour  were  inborn. 
Woodward  sent  ten  letters  in  his  own  hand- 
writing to  one  workman  concerning  the  carving 
of  one  of  the  windows  of  the  Front. 

It  had  been  intended  from  the  first  that  all 
decoration  should  illustrate  the  Kosmos,  as 
religious  histories  or  allusions  for  the  most 
part  are  represented  in  ecclesiastical  edifices. 
The  workmea  generally  made  the  designs  for 
places  and  objects  appointed  to  them  by  the 
Architect. 

The  upper  windows  in  the   Front  were  to 


On  the  Irish  Workmen  107 

illustrate  some  part  of  the  Fauna  and  Flora 
of  our  planet;  the  windows  on  the  South 
of  the  Front  the  vertebrate  classes,  —  Man, 
Quadrumana,  Carnivora. 

The  second  window  was  first  begun  by 
order  of  the  Architect,  but,  probably,  not  by 
that  of  the  Delegates,  it  being  long  vacation. 

O'Shea  rushed  into  my  house  one  afternoon, 
and — in  a  state  of  wild  excitement — related  as 
follows. 

f "  The  Master  of  the  University,"  cried  he, 
"  found  me  on  my  scaffold  just  now."  "  What 
are  you  at  ? "  says  he.  u  Monkeys,"  says  I. 
"  Come  down  directly,"  says  he ;  "  you  shall 
not  destroy  the  property  of  the  University." 
"I  work  as  Mr.  Woodward  orders  me."  'f  Come 
down  directly,"  says  he;  "come  down."3 

<  What  shall  I  do  ? '  said  O'Shea  to  me.  '  I 
don't  know ;  Mr.  Woodward  told  you  monkeys, 
the  Master  tells  you  no  monkeys.  I  don't  know 
what  you  are  to  do.'  He  instantly  rushed  out 
as  he  came,  without  another  word. 


io8  On  the  Irish  Workmen 

The  next  day  I  went  to  see  what  had 
happened.  O'Shea  was  hammering  furiously 
at  the  window.  'What  are  you  at?'  said  I. 
'Cats/  says  he.  'The  Master  came  along, 
and  says,  "  You  are  doing  monkeys  when  I 
told  you  not/5  "  To-day  its  cats,"  says  I.  The 
Master  was  terrified  and  went  away.3 

It  is  quite  intelligible  that  this  old  century 
proceeding  peculiar  to  Gothic  and  Irish  art 
was  puzzling  to  Mr.  Fergusson's  regulated 
mind.  It  did  not  however  so  end;  Shea  was 
dismissed.  I  went  to  wish  him  good-bye  with 
mixed  and  perplexed  feelings. 

I  found  Shea  on  a  single  ladder  in  the  porch, 
wielding  heavy  blows  such  as  one  imagines  the 
genius  of  Michael  Angelo  might  have  struck 
when  he  was  first  blocking  out  the  design  of 
some  immortal  work.  'What  are  you  doing, 
Shea?  I  thought  you  were  gone,  and  Mr. 
Woodward  has  given  no  design  for  the  long 
moulding  in  the  hard  green  stone/ 

Striking  on  still,  Shea  shouted, 


On  the  Irish   Workmen  109 

'  Parrhots  and  Owwls  ! 

Parrhots  and  Owwls ! 

Members  of  Convocation  !  * 

There  they  were,  blocked  out  alternately. 

What  could  I  do  ?  'Well/ 1  said,  meditatively, 
'  Shea,  you  must  knock  their  heads  off.' 

e  Never,'  says  he. 

6  Directly/  said  I. 

Their  heads  went.  Their  bodies,  not  yet 
evolved,  remain  to  testify  to  the  humour,  the 
force,  the  woes,  the  troubles,  in  the  character 
and  art  of  our  Irish  brethren — much  to  love, 
much  to  direct,  much  to  lament. 

If  some  of  my  sterner  brethren,  for  whom, 
after  its  kind,  this  enthusiasm  laboured,  think 
this  matter  too  trifling  for  their  graver  life, 
they  may  reflect  that  when  once  the  building 
was  ready  for  them  and  their  weighty  work,  the 
aesthetic  hammer  was  wielded  no  more.  Out 
of  four  hundred  Capitals  and  Bases,  about  one 
hundred  only  are  carved.  One  delicately  exe- 
cuted window  is  from  a  design  by  Mr.  Ruskin. 
K 


no       Contributors  to  the  Sculpture 


III.      CONTRIBUTORS  TO  THE 
SCULPTURE. 

Before  the  occupation  of  the  Museum,  gifts 
either  of  Statues,  of  Shafts,  or  of  money  for 
them,  were  made  by  more  than  one  hundred 
and  fifty  friends  of  the  work. 

Her  Most  Gracious  Majesty  presented  five 
Statues,  including  Francis  Bacon, 

The  Citizens  gave  a  Statue  of  the  Prince 
Consort. 

The  Undergraduates  gave  one  of  Aristotle. 

Shafts,  Capitals  and  Carving  for  the  Win- 
dows were  given  by  persons  so  various  that  I 
venture  to  record  a  few. 

The  Duke  of  Argyll. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Gladstone. 

Dr.  Pusey. 

Seven  Heads  of  Colleges. 

The  Earl  of  Derby. 

Sir  Charles  Lyell. 

The  Kev.  Professor  Sedgwick. 

Sir  Robert  Murchison. 


Contributors  to  the  Sculpture       in 

Mr.  Godfrey  Lushington. 

Dean  Liddell. 

Dean  Church. 

The  Chaplains  of  Ch.  Ch. 

Sir  Benjamin  Brodie 

(President  Koyal  Society). 

Gilbert  Scott. 
Dean  Buckland. 

Rev.  Dr.  Jacobson 

(afterwards  Bishop  of  Chester). 

Professor  Beale. 

O'Shea. 

P.  Lutley  Sclater. 

The  Earl  of  Harrowby. 

Sir  Stephen  Glyn. 


IV.    MR.  WOODWARD. 

Mr.  WOODWARD  did  not  live  to  see  the 
Museum  occupied.  Delicate  always,  he  became 
consumptive.  In  1859  ne  wen^  f°r  the  winter 
to  Algiers.  He  was  taken  ill  on  his  way 
home,  and  died,  after  a  few  hours  of  violent 
haemorrhage  from  the  lungs,  alone  in  an  Inn 
at  Lyons.  How  great  a  loss  to  Art,  and  to 


H2  Mr.  Woodward 

those  who  knew  the  loveable  nature  that  lay 
hid  beneath  his  courteous  silence,,  cannot  be 
told.  Stranger  though  he  comparatively  was, 
we  had  arranged  special  rooms  in  the  house 
adjoining,  breaking  a  door  through  to  our  own, 
that  he  might  pass  away  in  due  time,  cared 
for,  in  peace  to  the  end,  after  his  return.  A 
memoir  of  his  opinions  on  the  nature  of  Art 
in  Architecture,  and  on  the  character  of  the 
Artist,  was  to  be  written  by  one  in  Oxford, 
who  also,  alas !  passed  away  before  it  was 
accomplished.  No  other  could  take  it  up. 
Alexander  Munro  made  a  medallion  worthy 
alike  of  the  most  accomplished  sculptor  who 
also  died  in  his  prime  abroad,  and  of  our 
common  friend.  It  may  be  studied  in  the 
Radcliffe  Library  at  the  Museum,  both  as 
a  work  of  Art,  and  as  the  expressive  record 
of  a  guileless  contemplative  nature. 

THE    END